IN BLOOM
by JAy MANGO
Summary: Canadian born waitress, Rose-Anna Leduc finds herself in hard times. Life in Georgia has proven to be quite the challenge, but now that is the least of her worries. After a large blowout with her fiance, she wakes up to find that the world had literally changed over night...Follow Rose as she becomes a hunter, a tracker and a lover to a certain redneck.. O/C story
1. Blowup

**BEFORE YOU READ.**

**I DO NOT OWN ANY CHARACTERS IN THE WALKING DEAD. I OWN ONLY MY O/Cs**

Hi guys, before you read I need you guys to knows these;

1. I DO NOT WON ANY WALKING DEAD CHARACTERS

2. I am a new writer, I WILL MAKE MISTAKES

3. I love you guys for reading this!

4. Reviews are VERY REQUESTED I would love to know how I'm doing. 

5. I would love truthful reviews, but please don't be to harsh on me :'(

6. I can't promise quick updates, I work and have school and a social life to attend to as well. 

7. THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR READING THIS STORY!

**NEW BLOOM**

My day so far was typical, cranky toddlers, picky customers and rude cooks. All in the _recent _days of the life of Rose-Anna Leduc.

"Rose!" A booming voice rang from the other room. I quickly took all the dirty dishes from the table I had just served and pilled them into a large tray.

"Rose!" The voice roared again, this time with even more angry annoyance than before. I stormed into the dirty old kitchen, holding a tray of empty glasses in my left hand and my right hand on my right hip.

"Look, Jones you can't be yelling at me if I'm serving customers!" I bitched at him, all day he had been purposely trying to get on my nerves. After all, I _was _the new waitress and he felt as if I had to be 'trained' this way.

"All part of your training Rose." he snickered, his double chin folded. I quickly rolled my eyes, but made sure he had not seen me do so. I was annoyed with him..but In a strange way I was using this as an opportunity to get some anger out.

"Anywho" He turned his fat little rat looking body around and took out a large soup ladle and fiddled around in the back a little. "I need t'ya to stay abit late, Monica says she cudnt find er'self a babysittr fer those brats of er's ." His thick southern accent made it a bit hard for me to understand, but I definitely understood the ' stay late ' part.

"No, nuhuh, i got shit to do after this Jones!" My arm got tired so I slammed down the tray on the cleaning table behind me, surprising the meek dishwasher boy. I turned back to face Jones. I had my amrs crossed in a pissed off manner, throwing my hips into it as well I had worked at this place 'Janey Girl's Bar n Dinner' for about two months now, getting as many shifts as I could so I could support myself and my fiancé.

"Ya listen er girl" Jones leaned in closer to me and quickly waved his soup ladle back and forth, splatting the sweet potato mixture on the floor. "Ya do what I say; I don't know how it works up there in Cahnahda, but t'ere in the U.S.A we listen to our superiors." His breath was raunchy, and had smelt like he had eaten road kill all day. Disrespecting my home country was not helping the boiling anger rising in my belly.

"Esti..." I spoke softly but with fire under my breath. I had a real bad habit of swearing in Quebec French. I directed my eyes to the floor, counting to ten to help myself calm down. I had never, ever in my life been one to take or even _follow _orders. I tightened her fists, and closed my blue eyes to help her calm down even further.

"Ar ya even liste'nin to me!" He yelled in my face. The customers had certainly heard the fat man's shouting. He opened his slobbery mouth for a moment but was cut off by me.

"Sure.. whatever." I looked at him straight dead in the eyes, his dark brown ones on my light blues. I cupped my face with her left hand and leaned my head lazily into it. Grabbing my face was one of those weird things that calms me down.

Jones stopped dead in his yelling. He was very surprised by how calm I had gotten, he thought for certain he had broken the new girl down into a hissy fit for sure. "Now, git ta work." He broke the long eye contact we held for his own good, the death looks I was un-knowingly giving out could scare the devil himself. He hustled back into preparing tomorrow's sweet potato soup.

I stormed out of the kitchen area, but retained what cool I had left to serve the rest of my waiting customers. I took a brief moment to check my hair and makeup in the waitress station. my long, dark brown hair was in a neat side braid and what little makeup I wore managed to cover up my blemishes. I caught my own eyes, I stared back for a moment, taking in a little much needed time for myself.

Lately things weren't going my way. I had _so_ many problems, all were suffocating and I struggled everyday just to keep my mind off them.

"Honey, are you alright?" A familiar soft voice and a light touch to my left shoulder snapped me from my staring contest with myself. I quickly clued back in and looked to my left. It was my co-worker and friend, Dianna Gregory. Dianna had quickly become one of my good friends at the dinner, despite the large age gap between us two.

"Ya..ya i'm fine." I lied to the older women beside me. I smiled a soft, but re-assuring smile.

"Trouble at home sweety ?" Dianna asked, I replied with a loud sigh.

"Il talk to you about it in a bit," I paused and looked over to see a group of young girls pile into the dinner. I quickly gathered my things.

"_Pen, notepad, menus_." softly under her breath I whispers and picked all my supplies up and headed towards the large table. The girl's sitting there hadn't of been a few years younger than me, only about 19 or 20.

"Hello, what can I do for you?" I made sure to smile sweetly. I held my notepad up, ready to write their drink order. It had been about 9 Pm at the time, about the time I would of been going home at if it weren't for Monica and her damn kids.

The girl's focused their attentions towards me and began to order.

"_Alien secretions x 3, palm bays x 2 and 5 pina coladas."_ mumbled quietly to myself as I wrote down the orders.

I smiled at the girls and quietly walked off towards the bar, but was stopped by Dianna and pulled to the side.

"I got this dear." Dianna went forward and softly grabbed my notepad.

"Nono!" I insisted. but, I really, _really_ needed this money.

"I see the look'in yur face." Dianne smiled, the type of smile my mother would of given me. "Why don't cha go home and relax fer a bit, you're not scheduled till next Wednesday anyways."

I really thought about it for a quick moment. I had been going through a real rough patch in my life , and starting to think the offer Dianna was giving me was for the best.

"Thanks Dianne." I pulled the older taller women into a long hug. My head had only made it up to about Dianna's shoulders because of how short I am.

"Ya git yourself back home now, go get yourself some sleep an il' see ya on Wednesday."

I smiled and nodded , then walked over to the waitress station. I quickly passed the closing kitchen. Jones was giving the dish boy shit for not washing one of his containers properly, either way Jones was one of the biggest assholes id ever met in my life.

I grabbed my tight, old leather jacket from my hook and put it on and zipped it up. It had gotten a bit tighter on me during the past years, but i've had the damn thing since I was 16 and was not about to throw it out anytime soon.

With a smile I grabbed my purse and quickly walked out the backdoor, grabbing my smokes and lighting one up as I walked towards my fiance's old ford truck. He let me use it for the night while he stayed at home.

I unlocked my doors and quickly hoped into the drivers side, taking a long drag from my cigarette,exhaled and sighed. I quietly sat there for a moment, taking in and relaxing after a long day of serving some grumpy ass people. I started the ignition and with a click and a rev of the old engine I took off.

After a few minutes of driving I began to fiddle with the dash radio until I found the local news station. I smiled, rolled down the old windows and took in the sweet Georgian air. It defiantly wasn't the clean, north smelling air of B.C .. or Quebec, but after my long day of torture..anything smelt good. Rolling slowly down the old back roads of Atlanta towards my fiance's old broken down farmhouse was relaxing for me. The long 40 minute drive everyday has almost always calmed me down after a long stressful day, bumps and all.

A somewhat startling news report caught my ear, breaking my relaxed state.

"_Over twenty reports of citizens being attacked and 'bitten' by other human beings reported through out Georgia." _I looked down towards the radio with a strange look. Honestly this had to be a joke, but then again .. April fool's day was long gone.

I listened further and figured that the reporters were joking, so I turned off the radio and kept driving further down the back road. Dusk had settled in as the sky turned a darker tone and the stars shined a little brighter than before. In the near distance I saw the lights of my small farm house glowing. I drove a little further and made it near my driveway as I noticed an unfamiliar vehicle in my drive way..

With a puzzled look on my face I pulled in almost silently. My heart dropped slowly, and a sneaking suspicion grew in my head. Maybe it was one of his friends? Billy did live here all his life, certainly he had friends I haven't met yet.. my mind trailed to darker things

_he couldn't be.._

I got out of the truck, grabbed my purse and snuck up real quiet onto the front porch. I had always been pretty skilled in sneaking, I used to camp in the deep brush with my cousins for weeks in the summer, hunting almost daily. I sort of developed a soft natural step that way. Quietly as I could I opened the old oak door, only a tiny squeak came from it.

Even more slowly and silently I walked, this time on my toes towards the living room. What I saw made my heart shatter.

My fiance, Billy completely naked with a blonde bimbo fucking on my couch. On my fucking couch.

"What the fuck is this?!" I stared in disbelief. The two horn-dogs instantly stopped and he tossed her of quickly of his lap. She landed on the floor with a loud thud, I hope her ass had rug burn because of it.

"Sugar I could explain!" he got up and walked towards me. The blonde covered herself up and just stared at us in shock.

He was two feet away from me and I broke down. "How can you do this! how could you do this to _us_! Hot tears rolled down my face like an overflowing waterfall. Unable to control myself, my knees buckled and shacked and i fell to the floor absolute agony. My heart had felt like it had been put through a paper shredder and then stomped on.

"I..I" Billy tried to speak, but he stood there, not knowing what to do.

"How ...how..could you .." I said in between sobs. The blonde had gotten her clothes on, and snuck out the kitchen window..

"I thought you.. I thought that you were working late and..." I cut him off, I had gotten to my feet and punched him straight square in the face.

"Three years.." I sniffled, and began crying again, this time not as hard. My knees weakened again but I kept myself up and leaned against the door frame.

"Three FUCKING years Billy! THREE FUCKING YEARS!" I screamed. He held the side of his face. He got slowly got closer to me, and hugged me tightly making hushing noises to calm me down.

"GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM ME!" I swing my arms as hard as I could to get out of the hug he had me in. He was a big man, and he was not about to let me go so I could whack him in the jaw again.

"Just let me.." He said tried to calm me down, he wrapped his left arm around me and grabbed my face with his left hand softly. Billy looked me straight in the eyes. "I'm sorry Rosie.. I really am" Tears welded in my eyes as I looked into the eyes of the man I loved, three years and this.. this happens.

"No."

"Get out." I looked him dead in the eyes. "Get out of my house."

His expression changed from soft to hard, he let me go, but quickly pinned me against the wall and gripped my shoulders and clawed into them.

"What did ya jus say?" the grip on my shoulders tightened and began to hurt even more.

"I SAID GET OUT OF MY HOUSE!" As I screamed in his face, emotions ran rampant through me and I screamed my head off. "GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY HOUSE BILLY."

He pushed me into the wall harder than before. The back of my head smacked against the wall in a loud thud.

"YOU don't kick me out of MY house!" he pushed me harder and a crazy look ran through his face. He had always had a temper, especially when drunk and guessing by the bottles of whiskey him and his whore had scatters across my living room, he had been drunk off his ass.

I sobbed quietly and looked to the ground, his eyes burned through me as I felt his hot breath against my forehead.

I had a turn of heart, i stopped crying slowly and looked him dead in the eyes. "I'm leaving tommorow Billy, I'm not coming back." "You can keep the damn house I just never want to see you EVER again." my voice was venomous, poisonous with anger.

"Honey.. please don't do this..please." He begged softly, but his hard grip on my shoulders had not seized He was still boiling inside. I had known him long enough to know.

"You can sleep on the couch tonight." I thrusted my left shoulder as hard as I could and he released me from his grip, never breaking eye contact.

"But baby.."

"DON'T FUCKING TALK TO ME BILLY, THIS IS THE LAST FUCKING TIME I TAKE YOUR BULLSHIT, WERE THROUGH!" I pushed him out of my way and walked towards our bedroom. He stopped dead in dis-belief

Don't do this Rosie! what will you do without _ME_? YOU CANT DO ANYTHING WITHOUT ME, WITHOUT ME YOU ARE NOBODY!" he screamed behind me. I knew any moment now he would try to grab me and hurt me again. Luckily I made it towards the room before he could, I swiftly slammed and locked the door on him. He caught up to the door, tried to open the door but realized I had locked it. He banged angrily on the door. At first I was scared, he was a big man but nothing could ever break down the solid oak doors that separated us. I knew that for sure, this wasn't the first time I had made him sleep on the couch.

I flicked the light on and grabbed the first large bag I saw. my old Hockey bag, filled with old junk I had not unpacked since moving to Atlanta. I quickly emptied the bag and pilled what was in it into the closet, not caring if I made a mess of the place. Him and his bitch could clean it up after I left, I did not give a fuck.

Billy pounded even harder on the door. "ROSE, ROSE PLEASE DON'T " he screamed and hollered. If he wasn't drunk he would of been taking this a hell of alot better. Fucking drunk idiot had made one to many mistakes.

I stuffed the large bag with an assortment of different things. I mainly packed the things I needed to have for a few days. Shirts,pants,bras,underwear and more were stuffed into one side of the bag, an old box filled with memorials and and my old leather jacket filled it halfway. I opened the dresser drawers hastily and emptied them on the floor, grabbing some bottles of Advil and putting them tightly between my clothes.

Reality hit me and I began to slow down, it hit me hard I began to cry again, more softly than before but still enough that it gave me an even bigger headache than the one I had already.

"Rose." Billy called out softly, he probably had heard me crying. "I love you Rosie.." He paused for a moment. "That ring I know your still wearing, that ring means I love you." I looked down at my right hand, my ring finger held my most precious possession my engagement ring to Billy. I cried even harder now than ever before. My body collapsed over my sports bag, i cried deeply into it.

"Let me in Rose..let me in." My mind wasn't listening, my entire body was hunched over and everything in me was poured into my aching heart and then cried out. I was broken, absolutely broken.

Hey guys ! this is the end of my first chapter of IN BLOOM. I promise to get more into the actual story in chapter 2, this chapter was more of an introduction to Rose and what happened prior to the actually apocalypse.

Thanks for reading! much love - JAy


	2. Knocking at your door

**BEFORE YOU READ.**

**I DO NOT OWN ANY CHARACTERS IN THE WALKING DEAD. I OWN ONLY MY O/Cs**

Hi guys, before you read I need you guys to knows these;

1. I DO NOT OWN ANY WALKING DEAD CHARACTERS

2. I am a new writer, I WILL MAKE MISTAKES

3. I love you guys for reading this!

4. Reviews are VERY REQUESTED I would love to know how I'm doing.

5. I would love truthful reviews, but please don't be to harsh on me :c

6. I can't promise quick updates, I work and have school and a social life to attend to as well.

7. THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR READING THIS STORY!

**NEW BLOOM**

Chapter.2

Knocking at the door

I woke up slowly, the creeping afternoon sunlight welcomed me to wake up. I opened my eyes slowly, they were basically caked shut from what makeup/tears and whatever else I had left on my face. My entire back ached, but nothing could compare to the immense headache I had from yesterday. I slowly realized I had passed out over my old hockey bag I was packing yesterday. I must of been exhausted when I fell asleep, because I don't even remember closing my eyes to begin with. Ironically, it was one of the best sleeps I've gotten in months.

I rubbed my tired eyes and slowly got up from my hunched position. I stretched my body and it replied with large cracks from all over. I let out a small satisfied groan. Looking down on myself slightly, I noticed I forgot to change out of my work uniform, boots and all. I inhaled, I exhaled and looked outside my window. A beautiful, welcoming Georgian afternoon was set outside my window.

Last nights ordeal completely drained everything from me, mentally and physically.. slowly I stripped from my tacky waitress outfit and into one of my everyday outfits. the warmth of the southern afternoon sunlight shining into my room and onto me warmed me to the core. I slowly put on my black tight leggings, a tight plain white tank top and my favorite push up bra. The outfit hugged me in all the right places, it really showed off my natural curves in all the good sort of ways.

After another quick stretch I stopped and glanced towards my bedroom door. Billy must of fallen asleep after he stopped getting a reaction out of me.. or most likely he passed out from being drunk. Either way I could give less of a fuck, I wasn't joking around anymore. I really was going to leave, I've had enough.

With a grumpy grunt, I picked up the hairbrush from my side table and ran it gently through my long brown hair. I grabbed an elastic from my drawer and made a tight side braid to the left of my face. I chucked all of elastics into my hockey bag, i never go anywhere without my elastics.

A quick crashing of glass somewhere in the house made me jump. Dumb-ass must of dropped a beer bottle or something. I continued getting ready for a few minutes. I wasn't going to let my emotions run wild today , this time I kept my cool despite the feeling of a hole in my chest. One or two tears ran down my face but I ignored them and fixed my makeup . Leaving was for my own good. It really was.

The sudden sound of Billy's screams shot down my spine. These were not normal screams, these ones were blood curdling. I shot up from where I was sitting and dashed towards the door, unlocking the door and slamming it shut. As fast as i could, I ran towards the living room..I had no idea on what to expect.

I stopped completely dead in my tracks when I saw what was going on. The blonde bitch from yesterday was back, this time she was different .this time she was... dead? The women was hunched over something on the couch, her back facing towards me. My heart raced as my brain tried to connect the dots. Blood.. oh my god the blood all over could only mean one thing.. something was dead in my living room.. and Billy was the only one else in the house. I was paralyzed, my body frozen with fear.

"Billy.." I spoke softly. The blonde turned towards me and growled, bearing her rotten and broken teeth. She was drenched in blood and fresh flesh, her once platinum hair was now flattened and caked with old and new blood. Her once pretty face looked like it had been melted, bits and shards of glass had her face torn open almost completely She slowly limped towards me as I just stood there in complete and udder shock. Looking back, I should of hacked her skull into pieces when I had the chance..but everyone takes their first zombie encounter differently, I guess.

My body jolted as I broke from my state of shock and ran as fast as I could towards my bedroom heart had never beaten as fast as it did now then ever before. The thing followed me a little quicker now. Luckily for me, her left leg was half-eaten and almost backwards.

"Oh my god!" I slammed the door just in time to lock the door. Muffled RAH RAAhs' and aggressive clawing at my door made me shudder. What the fuck was going on? What the fuck? WHAT THE FUCK? I slowly slide down my door and onto my ass, eyes wide open. The assortment of noises the thing was making chilled me to the bone. Five minutes passed and the banging on the door became stronger, another one of those things were at my door. Death was _literally_ at my door.

Something ran through my mind.. hope? My hands shook like I had some sort of disease. In the midst of terror, I remembered that I had one of my grandfather's old hunting knives under my bed encase someone broke in. I quickly crawled/stumbled over to my bed, flipped it over and found the large old hunting knife made of Orca bone that had once belonged to my Grandfather. I eyed it and chuckled slightly, the knife brought back good old memories and for a quick moment, I felt happy. Reality was snapped back into me when the groans of the things behind me door grew even louder than before. I knew what I had to do.. I just didn't know exactly how to do it. I went with my instincts.

I took a quick look around my room, looking for some sort of back up plan just in case what I was about to do failed. These 'things' were certainly able to kill.. if I needed to get out quick I wouldn't want to be empty handed. I grabbed my hockey bag and zipped it up completely. I patted it down and made sure that it was completely zipped, I threw the large bag onto my shoulders and carried it quickly towards my large window. I looked outside for a moment, checking to see if there were any more of those things outside. After a quick scan of things , I lowered my bag down softly. Thank god the weirdly roomed house had the main bedroom on the main ground floor.

CRACKKK. The door only 15 ft away from me had a large gaping hole coming from the outside of it. Apparently the things were stronger than I thought. The blonde stuck her nasty head and left arm threw the door, her jaw snapped open and shut hungrily She now had splinters in her already torn face and body. Without hesitation I ran towards the thing, and stomped viciously on her one swinging arm. A large crack and tearing noise seconds later and her one arm was torn right off. The thing didn't even seemed bothered.

"AAH!" I took the knife with both hands and thrusted as hard as I could down. A large THUNK and mushy noise had me convinced that she was dead, but I wasn't stopping there. This was the same bitch that Billy had cheated on me with, the same skank that ruined us. I backed away panting for a moment, but my anger got the best of me and I rushed towards her, bent down and grabbed the blood drenched knife with my right hand. I brought the massive knife down on her head several more times, hot angry tears streaming down my face. My bedroom walls were painted with the bitch's brains and blood. It felt good, but I also hated how good it felt.

Pausing for a moment, I stood over blondie's body. Her skull no longer looked recognizable as a human's, it was ripped open by my viscous knife punctures..and by whatever had attacked her before me..

Suddenly the door began to shake more violently than before, The blonde's corpse fell from the hole she lodged herself in. I stepped back in shock, tripping my self in the process.

"TABERNAC!" I screamed at the top of my lungs. I had bruised something for sure. The other dead body broke through the door snarling and gnawing it's teeth. The dead was a shape I knew, it was Billy.

Holding back tears I whimpered slightly. "Billy..?" I asked softly, still backing up. I felt the wall behind me and stopped dead. "BILLY PLEASE, BILLY" I screamed. The snarling body of my dead fiance ripped through the door slowly. His entire rib cage was exposed, his left rib cage was swung open like a fridge door, exposing his shredded lungs and other exposed flesh.

I didn't know what to do, I sat there sprawled out on the ground, my knife flung to my right side. He slowly came closer and closer , it seemed like it took ages and ages. Suddenly, something in me snapped, the will to live in my brain ignited and I grabbed my knife with my right hand and held onto it tightly. Luckily, I looked up quickly enough to see Billy's dead body growling and snarling only a foot away from me. Quickly thinking, I dropped my knife and balanced backwards of my hands to allow me to forcefully kick in his thick legs, he slowly fell backwards, giving me enough time to spring onto my feet.

Knife in hand, I ran towards the growling body on the floor. Billy's snarling and broken body was something I could never be prepared for. I took my knife and thrusted it down forcefully, closing my eyes tightly to avoid seeing what would happen next. My knife sunk into my fiance's brain. He stopped snarling, he stopped looking at me with his milky,dull eyes. He stopped moving. I got to my feet, leaving the knife in his skull.

After a few moments of panting and blank staring at his body, Reality hit me. I had just killed my fiance, the man I _loved_. I studied his body over quickly, tears rolling down my face. My knife had sunken into his forehead, his darker than normal blood poured from the open wound.

_What was going on? _

_What was happening? _

_Was I dreaming?_

I remembered the reports on the radio just before I got home yesterday. I was almost sure it was a joke, but now it all made sense. Zombies.. or something like that.

I walked towards Billy's body. I grabbed the handle of the knife, looked away and pulled up quickly. I was not about to leave my knife lodged in his head..something told me that I would have to use it again. More blood than ever poured from the gaping wound from his head.

_What now?_

My first guess was to go towards Atlanta, but what if there were more of those things there? I was only a few miles away from the outskirts of it already.

I heard a slight movement outside my door. My head twitched towards the door. I crouched down slightly so I could see through the large hole in my door, knife in my right hand, ready to attack if needed. A pair of legs appeared out of the corner of my eyes. Something was behind me.

"RAWH, GRAH!" A zombiefied version of my twelve year old neighbor must of crawled through my window and into my room.

"ESTI!" I swore in surprise. The little girl came running towards me. I stayed crouched down, I planned on doing the same thing to her as I did to Billy. The poor thing had a large gaping hole on the side of her neck where one of those things must of bitten her.

"GRAAAH, RAH GRAAAAAAAAH!" She moaned and groaned. When she got close enough I pounced on her legs, knocking the little girl over and onto the hard wood floor. Surprisingly, she gave more of a fight than Billy did. Probably because Billy's was basically ripped apart, and she had just a hole in her neck.

She fought back, trying to claw and scratch at me with her nails. Quickly I stopped her fight and stabbed the little thing with my knife in the right eye, twisting the knife for good measure. She stopped moving, just like Billy and the blonde did. I figured that's how you 'kill' them, a quick stab to the head and it ended just like that.

I was taking this whole thing...pretty well for someone who had no idea of the entire situation.

"I NEED to get out of here."

I could take my truck.. but who knows if there were even more of those things out on the roads.. I could go through the woods.. nobody I knew of lived in the Georgian mountains that I knew of.. at least the ones around here. This situation ironically came almost naturally to me. Sure I was a waitress _now_, but growing up I was a hunter, the woods raised me and my cousins..the woods were my real home. The rain-forest of B.C were way different then the woods here in Atlanta..but I was only planning on staying up there for a bit while this situation played out.

Thank god I had already packed a lot of my shit in my old hockey bag..

My mind raced , despite trying to keep my cool. I had no clue on what was going on around me. All I knew now was that I needed to get my ass to safety quickly, that little girl laying bleeding on my floor had more family out there, and I knew that they were probably buzzing around somewhere close. I gently cleaned my knife on my already blood drenched shirt and cut a small hole in my leggings for the knife to fit properly without falling.

As I made my way towards the window I stopped. I had _almost _forgotten about Billy. With a sigh, I turned my head around to see him. I knew I had to leave.. I knew he was dead but something in my heart ached. It was healing slowly, my heart that is.

"Goodbye Billy." I spoke softly, small tears formed in my eyes that I quickly blinked away.

I slowly climbed out of my window, not looking back. I landed softly on my hockey bag. Silently I crouched down, looking in all directions for movement. In the slight distance I saw a few figures making their way towards this area. Swiftly and cautiously I slugged my bag over my shoulder and dashed towards the tree line that separated the house from the mountains. I made it into the woods safely, I looked around for the slight trail made by Billy and his siblings when they were younger. After a moment of searching I found it and continued down the trail quickly for minutes, it stopped at a large well that both Billy's family and his neighbors used when water was short.

I took a moment to think of where I was heading towards. I had no map to help me out, no compass or anything else useful I decided to go with my instincts. I guessed I was going the opposite direction towards Atlanta, so I continued and made my own trail deeper into the mountains. I noticed that wildlife had been through this area lately, mainly rabbit and other small animals but there was evidence that deer had been through through as well.

If I had what I needed to make a rabbit snare I would.. but I had no wire or string to make myself a decent trap. Silently I sat down and rummaged through my hockey bag. If I knew that this was going to happen I would of prepared for it, I would of packed water and other needed supplies.

I continued to walk for an hour to two before I came onto a small shack in the middle of nowhere. I instinctively crouched down and took my knife from my side. I lowered my bag from my back slowly and quietly. Approaching the shack I smelt a horrid smell, it was the smell of rotting flesh in the heat and the sound of tearing and ripping. I slowly stood up against the shack as I got there. I peeked slightly into it's only window and saw what appeared to be a hunter, being eaten by another hunter.

I exhaled slowly and closed my eyes. I rushed towards the door, kicked it open and with a few steps I was next to the 'zombie.' The thing didn't have a chance, I don't even think it noticed me even walk in. I thrusted my knife into the back of it's head and twisted, it dropped with a loud THUD and stopped moving. As it layed on the ground, bleeding excessively I got a not so 'good' look at it's meal. The half-eaten man had his guts and everything else ripped open from him body. I almost puked, thank god I had a strong stomach.

I dragged the two bodies out of the shack and laid them out beside the shed,I took the one hunter's camo ball cap from his head and wore it on mine to keep myself from getting heat stroke. I hoped the smell of death and rotting would keep the other dead things around here from smelling my own scent.

Swinging the door open, I decided that this place would be where I would stay for now. It was a surprisingly well built shack, most likely made by the hunters to stay in while they were deep in the woods. It had an old small mattress with a torn thin blanket, a small pillow and an old sturdy wooden chair in the corner. I was pretty lucky to find this place in the middle of nowhere, almost to lucky.

I walked towards the area that I had left my in the woods in the hot Georgian heat while carrying a large hockey bag was exhausting, the walk had left my back sore and knotted. Slowly I picked up the bag again and grunted in slightly. I slung the old bag over my left shoulder and marched back into the shed. The sun was starting to go down and dusk set quickly.

I locked the shack door behind me and pulled down the window cover slightly. I took a look around the small shack. It was just big enough to fit one or two people, the bad thing about it was that the entire left corner near the chair was drenched in the blood of the poor hunter that was eaten by his zombiefied friend. I took off my old blood stained shirt and wipped down the leftover blood and bits of flesh on the floor and wall, when I was done i chucked it into the corner.

By the time I was done, the sun had completely set and darkness arrived. I pulled down the curtain completely to avoid being seen by anything that would pass by during the night.

I zipped open my bag quietly and grabbed another white tang top. I had tons of them because I used to wear them underneath my waitress shirt. I put the tight thing on, pulling it down and over my large boobs. I didn't even bother changing my pants. Crawling into the mattress was a relaxing way of ending this horrible.. horrible day. I couldn't find any comfort in the bed. My mind wouldn't let my body fall asleep. My heart ached as I thought of Billy. I couldn't keep myself from thinking about how he looked into my eyes.. how he would always cuddle me to sleep when I had a hard time falling asleep. Tears streamed down my face and I began crying softly into the old pillow. I slowly and quietly cried myself to sleep like this night before.. but this time I remembered closing my eyes.. this time I remembered everything.

Hey guys ! hope you liked this new chapter of IN BLOOM ( i changed the title )

A little bit more action for this chapter than the last for sure.

I haven't introduced Rose to the cast yet because i'm trying to develop her own character first before I mix her into the actual story plot, but I can GUARANTEE a more exciting chapter 3, because I'm working on it right now !

**A special thanks to Ulander24 for the review and follow :) greatly appreciated !**

- JAy MANGO


	3. Searching

**BEFORE YOU READ.**

**I DO NOT OWN ANY CHARACTERS IN THE WALKING DEAD. I OWN ONLY MY O/Cs**

Hi guys, before you read I need you guys to knows these;

1. I DO NOT OWN ANY WALKING DEAD CHARACTERS

2. I am a new writer, I WILL MAKE MISTAKES

3. I love you guys for reading this!

4. Reviews are VERY REQUESTED I would love to know how I'm doing.

5. I would love truthful reviews, but please don't be to harsh on me :c

6. I can't promise quick updates, I work and have school and a social life to attend to as well.

7. THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR READING THIS STORY

**NEW BLOOM**

Chapter.3

Searching

_"Mom?" _

_"Mom where are you?"_

_"-"_

A startling chill ran down my spine, waking me up suddenly from the nightmare I was having. My breathing was fast, my heart pounded hard in my chest. I shot up instantly, with a terrified look on my face. Moments later I called down, still panting.

"Damn dreams." I grumbled to myself tiredly, I slowly caught my breath. I threw the torn blanket off me and slowly got up and stretched, but not for long. My sunburn had my skin red,peeling and sore. I sat back down on the edge of the mattress and yawned tiredly. Of course, I didn't have the greatest sleep, I was used frequent nightmares..but lately they have gotten stronger and more... vivid.

I sat on the edge of the mattress for a few minutes, thinking about everything that had happened in the past two days. I layed back on the mattress, and stared aimlessly at the low wooden ceiling.

_Billy is dead.. I live in a shack.. there are fucking zombies trying to rip me open... and I cant get a good fucking night of sleep. _I snorted. _At least I don't have to worry about working or rent anymore, esti._

My stomach growled loudly, interrupting my own thoughts. I forgot that I didn't even get the chance to eat anything yesterday because of everything that had happened I completely forgot that I was hungry. Sliding over to the side of the bed anxiously, I began to rummage quickly through my hockey bag in hopes of finding something something to eat, and found nothing.

"Of course." I whined. After all, I was just packing to move out.. not packing for the zombie apocalypse.

Hunger drove me to get up. I was completely unprepared for this mess. My stomach growled loudly again. My belly felt tight and aggravated , I don't think I've had to skip a meal in years. I was beginning to get grouchy, and I had reason; my back was aching and my feet were to, and I was fucking starving. I was in rough shape.

I took a peek out the window..it looked peaceful enough, I didn't spot anything out of the ordinary.

My stomach growled again, I needed to eat and I needed to find water, or else I would die out here in these Georgian mountains.

I changed my clothes, I didn't want to wear the same pants and underwear for a second day in a row, that's just gross. Not bothering to change my shirt or bra. I continued dressing and put on my only pair of shoes, my flat tan, knee high cowboy boots Billy had gotten me months ago when I first moved to the U.S. I messily tied my hair into my typical side braid and grabbed my knife from the ground. I adjusted the camo hat I took from the dead hunter and put it on. This wasn't _exactly _the gear I would usually wear to hunt, but it would do for now.

Slowly and quietly I opened the wooden door, carefully scanning to see if there were any zombies around. As I crept out, I spotted .. but mostly smelt the two dead hunters from yesterday, still laying in the spot I had put them in. My guess was their horrible smelling bodies had kept whatever in these woods away from me.

I wasn't new to the woods, I knew how to make a simple rabbit snare and how to clean just about whatever animal you could throw at me. I can thank my mom and grandma for that one.

Judging by the dull sun, it was early morning. It was a good time to be out and about because it wasn't to warm or cold. I carefully walked north for about a half hour, tracking a few rabbit tracks and whatever I could find along the way. So far, I hadn't seen any of the rabbits that I was tracking..and I was getting damn hungry..but then again, there was really nothing I could really do if I _did _find something.. a knife wont do me any good unless I can catch the animal.

I hadn't hunted for a few years prior to this, I stopped after moving to Montreal with my dad when I was young. Fortunately, I don't think I could ever forget anything that my mom's-family had taught me. I followed a rabbit's trail until I came upon a large patch of tall green grass.

The sudden crisp sound of snapping trees a few yards from me made me jump. I instinctively ducked and crouched down into the high grass and drew my knife for safe keeping. The noises got louder, it sounded like something big was up a ways ahead. My eyes grew wide, my heart began to beat a bit faster. I peeked over the long green grass I was hiding in and to my surprise.. there were two men standing a in the clearing not far ahead. I quickly forgot about the rabbit I was hunting and focused my entire attention to them.

They didn't seem like they were zombies, the way they moved was human and not stiff and.. zombie like. I kept a very careful watch on them..I noticed that they were both carrying weapons. The thought of approaching them occurred to me, but if they were hostile and not willing to help me out then it would be a waste of time and possibly my life. Instead, I decided I would follow them and see where they were heading to.

After a few minutes of just silently watching them talk, they turned and started walking into the woods away from me. I kept low. Instead of cutting through the wide open clearing, I took the long route around and kept silent and hidden in the woods.

The two men stopped a lot to talk and to argue.. they must of been brothers. I got closer to them, I was about a yard away, crouching and making extra sure that I wasn't seen or heard by either one of them.

Sneaking was something I was great at, my tiny feet and natural tininess gave me a fair advantage. Memories of me and my cousins flashed through my head. We used to steal pop and candy from the store down the road from our houses. I was proudly never caught once.

I got a good close look at the two men. The older looking one was bigger and had a thick southern accent.. he looked like he could of been an army sergeant or something. The second one was more intriguing.. he was younger looking than the first one.. scruffy and.. handsome..he held a cross bow slung on his back held there by a large strap. The younger one also had an accent, but it was not as strong as the other one.

"Listen er" The Older one demanded. "We're gonna rob that camp dry, than take off." The younger one nodded in agreement.

They were going to rob a camp apparently... unless I did first. The two men gave me a great idea, if _they _did have a camp with other's.. and it's worth _them _robbing, then it's worth _me _robbing. The only problem with that plan was that I only had a knife..and they had guns. Also, that I didn't know what they were really talking about.

Suddenly my stomach decided to join the conversation. A loud grumble from it got the attention of the youngest man.

_Please god , tell me he didn't just hear me.._

"What the fuck er ya look'in at now boy?" The older one grumbled.

"Shut the fuck up." The younger one barked and crouched down, with his cross bow drawn..making his way towards my hiding spot.

_FUCKKK, FUCK_

**THUNK.** A metal arrow sunk into something a few meters in front of me. I was just happy it hadn't sunken into me.

I don't think I had ever had to hold my breath as long and silently as I did in those few seconds. Beads of nervous sweat dripped from my forehead as the footsteps got closer. I slowly and carefully pulled myself tightly into the fetal position, closing my eyes and layed on my side. A sting came to my shoulders, I had major sunburn that stung like a bitch.

"Ay, Merle, I got one." The younger one stomped through the grass almost right in front of me. From the slight corner of my eye and through the grass I saw him holding up a large, plump rabbit.

CALISSE , that was my rabbit.. tabernac...

"Gud job numb-nuts." The older man, or "Merle" replied loudly.

With a loud snort, the younger one stomped again through the long thick grass, and away from my hiding spot. Merle slugged the younger man's right shoulder and they both walked off silently.

I waited a few minutes in complete silence, not moving an inch. Slowly, I got to my knees and peeked slowly over the grass once again. There was no sign of the men being close by anymore.

My stomach growled once again, I started to feel really dizzy.. I NEEDED to eat quickly. Of course the hot Georgian sun wasn't helping my already dehydrated self. My breath began to get more shallow by the minute, my shoulders, face and legs were burning up.

I decided it was time to go back to the shack, my original plan was to follow the two men back to where ever they were going.. but I had no energy for that..

I realized just how bad I needed food and water now, I knew I needed to get back.. but I also really needed to somehow lure those to men back to this area again.

I got up slowly to my feet, wobbling and slightly hunched over frontwards. An idea popped into my head, I looked around and found a large,tall broken stick. Grabbing the stick, I forcefully brought it down and stabbed it into the ground as hard as I could. This was the best I _could _do for now, hopefully the two would walk back into this clearing and notice the tall object sticking up from the ground, and stick around long enough for me to find them again.

I slowly followed my trail of broken tree branches back to my shack, dragging my heels and almost passing out a few times. I stopped suddenly, and dry heaved. My stomach was completely empty to the point where I had nothing to throw up.

A crash in the bush startled me, I drew my knife and got into fighting position, barely recovering from my heave. My vision was blurred, but I could make out the distinct figure of a small doe standing a few feet in front of me. Hunger and primal instincts took hold of my brain, I dashed towards the animal and it dashed off into the woods, I followed without a question.

I was barely in control of myself, I couldn't describe it better than being super high and sick at the same time. My vision was blurred, my legs wobbly. I kept running towards the deer, until I realized where I was. In my pursuit of the deer..I had managed to crash myself into a small, fresh water river.

My eyes widened in excitement.

WATER, WATER!

I dropped to my knees in the stream and instantly cupped the water in my palms and poured the water into my mouth, not thinking once about the consequences I continued to do this for a few minutes until my stomach felt like it couldn't hold anymore liquids. It helped my hunger, a bit.

I got up from my dirty knees and looked up and around. I felt like I had blacked out while following the deer.. I honestly didn't even know if the deer I chased was even real. I was still really dizzy, and my body ached all over, but my stomach stopped bugging me as much.

I looked for signs that the deer had really existed I found no tracks or anything to prove that it did. After a few minutes of splashing myself to cool myself down in the water, I took off back to the shack. My body needed a lot of rest. I dragged myself back to the broken tree trail I was on before, and after what felt like hours, made it back to the shack.

I swung the door open and slammed it shut, locking it behind me. The room spun around, I groggily shuffled my feet to the bed, kicked my boots off and collapsed into the mattress. Instantly blacking out.

_Her hair_

_her smell_

_her voice_

_her memory_

I passed in and out of consciousness all night, it felt like I was riding a roller coaster that went through sudden black tunnels, twists and turns.

"Ahh..." I sat up, holding my stomach. My stomach didn't growl anymore, it just felt hollow and sunken in.

I turned my head towards the window, it was a new day... looked like it was late afternoon, around 5 o'clock. I kept my head still, trying to decrease the spinning. A thought went through my mind. If I didn't find something today.. I would die in a few days, and I wasn't about to die out here in these damn woods. With a lot of self-motivation, I got up from the bed and stood on my feet. My head was still spinning, my legs were wobbly and my body sore from just about everything, but I was not ever about to give up and die here, never.

I reached down into my bag and changed my clothes, I put on a pair of denim short-shorts and another white tank top I put on my boots and adjusted my camo hat. I grabbed my knife and pushed the door open without caution, just pure determination drove me.

I was on a starvation/anger/determination streak, zombies or not.. I WAS going to find something to eat.. I WAS going to find those men.. I WAS going to survive.

There was a figure moving about a yard away from my shack as I swung the door open. The thing turned it's deformed head from side to side, sniffing the air until it spotted me. the jaw less creature growled and started making it's way towards me. Without a slight thought, I started speed walking towards it, moving faster than it was itself. Knife in hand, I was fearless. I forcefully thrusted my right arm forward, like a knight with his sword. The zombie's arms didn't have time to reach me me, I had thrusted my large hunting knife into his forehead. I thrusted my arm back and watched the thing fall onto it's back. I silently wiped the hot sweat from my forehead.

The spinning in my head was still there, but it was starting to subside. I barely acknowledged the zombie, I forcefully stomped down and crushed his skull with my right boot, and continued to make my way down my broken tree trail. I kept the same, determined look on my face, keeping my eyes directly straight forward. after a little bit, I neared the clearing I had left the stick mark at, when I spotted the two figures at the mark itself.

It was the same men from yesterday. My heart did a front flip in hope. I crouched down slowly, but kept my head slightly up so I could see everything they did. I focused my entire attention to these two men...

'Merle' walked around the mark, inspecting it for a few minutes before throwing his hands up in defeat. He looked towards the younger man. He was confused, it made me chuckle slightly I thought out a plan, when they leave I would follow slightly behind, when they would reach their 'camp' I would wait in the woods until night time and then take all of their supplies I needed. It was perfect.

The plan would of worked perfectly, but the world had other plans.

Something knocked me forcefully to my stomach, in the process I smashed my mouth on a rock. Blood dripped from my busted lip and onto the ground. What the fuck?

I spun myself around quickly and came face to face with a snarling zombie. Her rancid rotten breath made me want to puke. The thing snarled and went to bite a chunk out of my shoulder.

"AAAH" I screamed in surprise, I completely forgot that the other two men were just a few yards away from me. I reached quickly for my knife, but didn't find it.

When I was knocked down, I dropped my knife.. i dropped my fucking knife.

Quickly thinking, I kicked the thing in the stomach as hard as I could, making it stumble back, giving me a few seconds to search for my knife.

I found my knife and gripped it in my right hand. I spun around again, ready to end the zombie. As i went to lung forward to stab the zombie, an arrow flew above my head and stuck into the zombie's skull. The thing stopped moving.

A chill ran down my spine, i kept my cool but began to breath heavily, my head started spinning again.

The men, they saw me.. they must have... they must know im here now. It was fight of flight, run or stay situation. I kept completely still , hoping that they didn't hear me scream.. praying that they just think that the zombie was attacking a bunny or something.. i nearly prayed.

The sound of footprints getting closer to me got my heart beating faster and faster. I shot up from where I was and ran faster than I ever had before, ignoring all my bodies sharp pains and bruises and pushed forward. The footsteps behind me stopped momentarily, and then they picked up again.

I tried following my own tree trail, but I also wanted to confuse whoever was following me. I ducked under fallen trees, I zig-zagged. My heart raced, it felt like it was going to explode. After a few minutes of running, eventually made it to the edge of a large river...no where to go. I stopped, my body instantly started into a fit of coughing , I hunched over and held my stomach, my hat fell off during this time. The footsteps behind me stopped. I looked up, the man looked me directly in the eyes. His cold blues on mine. I grabbed my knife from my side in a tight and strong grip.

The man stood a yards in front of me, he had his crossbow pointed directly at me.

"If You fucking shoot me with that and i'll fucking rip your throat open!" I screamed, pointing my knife in his direction, still panting from the run and the coughing. He didn't look at me like I was a threat, he didn't even look bothered.

I shock of pain ran through me, i dropped my knife and instantly grabbed my stomach in pain. Every part of my body was in man kept quiet, slightly lowering his crossbow

I felt my knees buckle, my lungs weaken and my head spin.

I looked to the man, with nothing else to do.. with no other way I spoke.

"_Please_.." my voice cracked softly, I could barely speak. I turned my head towards him, tears welding in my eyes. "_Help me_."

My eyes slowly rolled into the back of my head..I blacked out, my body fell to the ground and my mind went blank.

AAAAAAAAAAAAh, i wanted this chapter to be so much better :( oh well, i needed to apply the dots somehow.

any who, latest of IN BLOOM. Hopefully you guys like it, despite it being boring (to me)

Time to go work on Chapter.4 woohoo !

Special thanks to Rebel29 for the follow and review! :)

- JAy MANGO


	4. Alive

**BEFORE YOU READ.**

**I DO NOT OWN ANY CHARACTERS IN THE WALKING DEAD. I OWN ONLY MY O/Cs**

Hi guys, before you read I need you guys to knows these;

1. I DO NOT OWN ANY WALKING DEAD CHARACTERS

2. I am a new writer, I WILL MAKE MISTAKES

3. I love you guys for reading this!

4. Reviews are VERY REQUESTED I would love to know how I'm doing.

5. I would love truthful reviews, but please don't be to harsh on me :c

6. I can't promise quick updates, I work and have school and a social life to attend to as well.

7. THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR READING THIS STORY!

**IN BLOOM**

Chapter.4

Alive

_"Hey, Rosie! Rosie hey!"_

metal , the bitter taste of blood. I licked my lips, a stinging sensation followed. My eyes slowly blinked open, the blinding sunlight made me flinch.. then clarity.

I was in my shack..I kinda remember what had happened yesterday..I looked around quickly, I was on my mattress, so I was in the shack. If I was in my shack that means that the man brought me here..? Just to make sure I wasn't dead , I pinched my arm slightly. So I wasn't..dead? So that man must of..

My thoughts were cut off by the sound of footprints out side the door. I jerked my head over quickly, something was walking outside my door. I jumped silently off my bed.. creeped towards the door and hid in the corner, knife ready to attack. Seconds later the door was forcefully swung open, I was skinny, so I could fit in the gap that was left when the door was fully open.

As the door shut slowly, I flung myself forward and tackled the body that was in front of me, knocking the body down onto the ground. I was about to swing my knife down, when the body painfully grabbed me by the waist and forcefully threw me to the other side of the room and into the wall. I smashed my back against the hard wooden wall, it hurt like hell.

"Stupid bitch !" The person yelled. I grabbed my knife and eyed the person down. It was the man, the man that I saw just before passing out!

He got up slowly, rubbing his back. I got a good look at him now, better than before. He was a good looking man..slight facial,messy brown hair. His shirt had the sleeves ripped off them , exposing his large arm muscles. He looked annoyed, I don't really blame him.

I studied him for a moment, not letting my knife go. After all this bullshit I wen through in the past few days, I wasn't about to die this easily.

My body suddenly went into an uncontrollable coughing fit, letting my guard down only for those few moments. My lungs were dry and felt like they were going to crack, my stomach ached more than ever.

"Did you get bitten by one of them walkers?" He asked.

"No." I gave him a dirty look, and replied quickly and in between coughs. The fit settled down and I layed back against the wall, keeping a watch on him. Not once loosening my grip on my knife.

I looked him straight in the eyes. He had beautiful blue eyes, dark and deep. He looked back into my pale blue eyes, until he broke the silence.

"Got a name?"

I kept quiet, I didn't quite trust him yet.

He snorted, then grabbed something from his side and chucked it at me, a small rabbit.

"Before you pass out."

My mind went crazy, **food! food**! I almost wanted to bite into it raw, but it needed to be cleaned and cooked. My view on this man changed, I trusted him a little bit more.

The man stared at me for a moment, then went to walk out the door.

"Wait!" I reached my free hand out slightly, he turned around.

"Stay, stay for a bit.. I.. my name is Rose-anna." I looked down at the rabbit and flipped it over. "I don't know how to clean this." I put on an innocent looking pleating face. I lied to him, I knew how to clean it better than he probably did.. but I wanted him to stay. He was the first _alive _person I had seen in days.

"What'are ya doing in the woods alone?" He asked plainly. He leaned against the wall.

"I used to live north of here, in Atlanta and I fled to here to escape those.. things." I grabbed the rabbit by the legs and stood up. "Sorry for attacking you, I thought you were a zombie and.."

"No need." he grabbed the rabbit from my hands, turned and walked out of the door.

My body ached from hunger and being thrown into a wall. I followed him to an old tree stump pretty close to the shack. He dropped the rabbit down onto the log and took out a butcher knife. He was really tall compared to me, I felt like a little kid next to him.

"Do ya know how to make a fire?" He turned to me and asked. I nodded and took off to find some wood.

This was so strange, I.. I thought he was going to kill me but he didn't? I would of killed someone who was stalking me.. but he brought me food? I wasn't sure why he was being so nice to me for.. and other day he had someone with him, where was he? So many questions buzzed in my mind.

I gathered some old dry pieces of tinder and pilled them on each other in a sandy area about a two minute walk from my shack. I took some of the flammable objects away from the area to make sure that the forest itself wouldn't catch fire.

"You got any matches?" I tapped on his shoulders, he flinched a bit, but it didn't keep him to cleaning the rabbit.

He stopped for a quick moment and reached into his front shirt pocket and chucked a pack of matches to the side, not taking one look at me.

_That was rude_. I thought in my head, but grabbed them and walked back to the pile of sticks. I lit the match and threw it into the small pile of sticks, instantly the dry sticks burnt and made a nice, small fire.

I walked back to the shack area, taking my time. I walked into my shack and began to change out of my dirty clothes. I changed into a new pair of denim shorts and into a green Vancouver Canucks logo tank top I noticed I was running out of clean clothes to wear, but in times like these that was my least of problems. I put my boots back on, I looked ridiculous wearing knee high cowboy boots with short shorts, but ignored it. I swung the door open and looked around.

"I still don't know your name." I said loudly, trying to get the mans attention from the rabbit for a second.

"Daryl."

I paused for a moment before answering.

"Cool.." I replied. I walked towards the woods again.

Today was the only day were I didn't have to shield my eyes from the sun, it was humid but still warm..but the grey sky warned of rain. I grabbed two sticks and two medium sized broken logs and marched out of the woods. I forcefully dragged them out of the woods, usually I could pull them out easier but I was really sore. I placed the logs a good distance away from the fire so that I could sit down on them.

I sat down pulled out my knife and began to sharpen the ends of the sticks, making them sharp so I could poke through the rabbit meat without wrecking it to much. The fire warmed me up and comforted me.

My stomach finally growled.. all this thought of eating got me excited. While cutting the edge of the stick I looked down at right hand for the first time in days, I forgot that I was still wearing my engagement ring. Pain jolted in my heart. I stopped cutting the stick and stared at the opal-diamond encrusted ring for a few moments.

_Billy.._

A nudge to my shoulder broke me from my trance, Daryl had fully cleaned the rabbit and sat down on the log I had placed down for him.

Awkward silence.. well awkward for me. Daryl handed me a leg and i pierced it with my stick and put it over the fire, he did the same with the stick I sharpened for him. This was a very primitive way of eating..but the only way it could be done right now. As soon as the meat was cooked enough to eat, I devoured it, I ate as much as I could. I was literally starving.

Daryl watched me for a few moments, he slowly ate his while I devoured mine. I think he understood pretty well why I was eating it like a wild animal.

Dusk rolled in now, the grey sky grew darker and sounds of thunder boomed in the distance. Me and Daryl didn't speak much, he did not look to interested so I just kept quiet and simply enjoyed the presence of another person.

"What are you doing out here in the mountains?" I kept my eye contact to the fire, watching it flicker and slowly die down.

"Me an my brother were huntin in the mountains when all this shit started happenin." I kept my eyes on the glowing fire, my body was warm and heated peacefully.

"Are you from round here?" His question took me by surprise, I guess he noticed my 'accent.' I really dident expect him to ask me anything or even continue talking.

"I'm from Canada." I glanced over towards him, he raised an eyebrow. "Yanno, like.. Polar bears and maple syrup?" I smiled. "That's usually what you Americans know us for..eh?"

Since moving to the States months ago, I was getting so used to the _'Did you live in an Igloo?' _questions. They were the most hilarious and stupid questions ever.

"Why'd you move to the States?" Daryl looked into the fire. I froze for a moment before answering, this one really caught me off guard.

"My.. my fiance was from Atlanta.. I moved in with him." more awkward silence, great.

A small drop of rain landed on my lap, the first of many to come. I looked up to the dark sky, slightly lit up by the fire. More raindrops began to drop , more and more by the second. The fire started to just steam.

"Hey cmon, " I got up and motioned for Daryl to follow. I was just going to leave the fire as it was, at this rate it would be out in no time anyways. I walked to the shack quietly, It gave me a moment to clear my head, to clear myself of any bad feelings.

I welcomed the rain to pour on me, it took some of the old dried mud out of my hair and off my body, I didn't feel like such a hobo anymore.

The rain of course made the little trail I had made from the shack to the fire pit muddy and slippery, I almost fell a few times. Daryl followed me a few feet behind me. As we neared the shack area, something moving in the rain caught my eye, I stopped and crouched down.

"Whats goin on?" Daryl whispered, he was crouched down beside me as well, his crossbow out and ready to shoot.

"Zombie..walker..whatever you call them." I pointed with my knife. Daryl nodded, looking up to spot the zombie. My hair and everything else on my body was soaked from the hard rainstorm we were having, but it didn't stop me from spotting the zombie with my keen eye.

"Can ya spot any others?"

Lifting my head up a bit over the bushes, I directed my eyes to every spot I could see, there were no other walkers but the original bloated walker making his way by my shack. The heavy and quick rain made it very hard to even spot the one walker.

"No, none I can see." I looked back Daryl, studying his face. "Don't do anything stupid, eh?" I could tell by his facial expression that he was thinking of something. He looked me in the eyes and nodded to me. He got up from his crouching position, and crept towards the zombie. I guess he couldn't get a good shot on the zombie from here because of the rain.

I watched over him as he crept forward, I kept my eye out on him and looked for even the slightest movements in the brush. This was my way of contributing being the watch. It was almost impossible to see anything that was going on though, it was dark and raining to hard.

I watched out for myself to, of course. Thunder boomed over top of us, lightning lighted the entire area up, and i'm glad it did. The light lit up the forest and the area around us for a moment, and in that moment I spotted a small horde of walkers coming through the near bush lines and coming fast towards Daryl.

I panicked, I couldn't yell because that would attract them more, so I did what I could. I slid my knife into my shorts and took off from my spot and towards Daryl. I ran into him, surprising him to the point were he near shot me.

"What the hell women?!" He bitched at me. " I near put an arrow threw ya head!" He pulled his arrow from the swollen zombies head.

"Theres a horde coming this way, hurry!" His facial expression changed and he nodded, we both ran faster towards the shack, the loud sound of deathly moans and screams behind us.

I swung the door open for a moment, and slammed it and locked it shut as soon as Daryl was in. The muffled moans and groans of the zombies outside the door clawing was a little less terrifying than before.

I forcefully pulled down the curtain over the window, not letting the zombies see us would maybe deter them from wanting in..maybe.

"FUCK!" Daryl yelled and slammed his foot into the ground "Why did'nt u tell me there was more?!" he screamed at me.

"Your fucking lucky I saw them in the first place!" I screamed back.

"Well now were fucki'n stuck in here waiting to be eaten!" Thunder boomed again.

"Well would you rather be out there with them?!" I pointed to the door, it was being banged on and moving violently. Daryl shut up for a moment, and cooled down.

"We stay here fer the night, maybe by then the walkers will be gone an we can make it to camp."

I nodded in agreement, this camp must the one that him an Merle were talking about when I was watching them.

I threw my hat on the mattress and undid my hair from the braid it was in. I wipped my face dry with my hand and sat down on my mattress. I considered everything inside this shack to be mine now, since the original owners were now dead and gone.

Daryl marched back and forth inside the tiny box of a shack, he barely fit under the short ceiling.

"The fire must of attracted them." I stared down at the floor. "Was dumb to have a fire that late in the day." I needed to eat, above everything else though, so I was pretty conflicted on that one.

A few hours passed, I layed awake in the bed, Daryl sat on the far edge of the bed and watched the door. It was still being attacked, but the door stood surprisingly strong.

I rolled over to look at him, he was beyond stressed. I don't think he liked feeling like a trapped animal..well who would?

"You, get yourself some rest." I tiredly spoke, he turned around and looked at me. I kept my cool in this whole zombie situation, something told me that we would be okay. I got up from my bed and stretched.

"I will keep watch for a while, you look like you need sleep." He gave me a slightly dirty look.

"Don't be giving me dirty looks." I shot one back at him. "Trust me I can do this, i'm not stupid." He mumbled to himself and got up from the corner and he slowly and cautiously got into the bed.

Daryl slowly began to doze off, but his mind was still on the danger of the zombies bursting through the door while he was asleep. He didn't believe that the girl.. Rose.. had real control over the situation, but he had to get some sleep. His mind slowly went quiet, he glanced over towards the tiny girl that sat on the edge of the bed, she was playing with her large white knife she had lying on her lap , she was running her fingers over the carved images in the closed his eyes again and fell into a quiet sleep.

Morning slowly approached, the smell of the rain that poured last night was leaked in through the wooden shack. I had stayed up all night to watch the door and make sure that nothing came through. I knew in the back of my mind that the door wouldn't hold forever, it was quite beat up right now and I knew it could burst open at any moment. I didn't feel to safe here in the shack, but having Daryl here comforted me, he was obviously skilled in killing these things, thankfully.

My eyelids were heavy from getting no sleep all night, I couldn't control myself anymore and began to doze off into a peaceful sleep. I was interrupted by a very large **THUNK **at the door, followed by more.

My eyes shot open and I grabbed my knife tightly, ready to use if I needed to. Daryl was woken up by the loud thunk at the door and was quickly putting his boots back on.

"I think one of them has a rock or something." I looked back at Daryl nervously. It was early morning, real early morning.

"Were gonna break through here, kill all of them scumbags and make our way to the camp." He grabbed his crossbow.

"Give it a second." I went to go check the window, I lifted the curtain just a little to see how many walkers were out there. About nine or ten were around the shack, The hoard had broken up significantly.

"I've got a plan" I motioned for Daryl to come towards me. Once he was beside me I explained it to him.

"You break this window and start shooting at the walkers, I go out there and stab them while you cover me." He looked a little concerned, like he had a problem with letting me go out there.

"If you get bitten.. it's not my problem." He grumbled. I nodded and went towards the door. He took out his large hunting knife and smashed the window wide open and placed his crossbow on the ledge. Almost all of the zombie's attentions were drawn to Daryl, he quickly took out a few of them

I unlocked the door and swung it open, hitting down the zombie that was in front of it. I quickly took care of that one with the knife, ending it's groans and moans. I took out another one that had it's back to me. Daryl took out two other zombies that were coming towards me. One zombie was coming towards me quickly, but I kept my cool. As I did many times before, I ducked down as the thing swung for me and tripped it with my leg.

"_Thanks dad, for putting me in gymnastics_." The thing was knocked down onto it's back when I got a painful cramp in my leg that caused me to wince My leg was so cramped up that I could barely move it . The zombie was getting up from it's back when an arrow pierced forcefully through it's soft skull. Daryl stood beside me, with his crossbow still pointed at the walkers head.

"You got them all?" I reached my hand out for him to help me up. He grabbed my hand and forcefully pulled me up. I stretched my leg out and got it moving again.

"Yea." He pulled his arrow out of the rotting thing's head. "We could of done this last night." He kicked the thing in the head.

"There were way more last night, a hoard full." We started taking the arrow's out of the zombie's heads.

"I wonder what drove them all out here to the mountains?" I asked out loud but didn't expect an answer.

"Were gonna have'ta look out for them when we walk to camp." I nodded my head in agreement. I guess I was invited to the camp, since he mentioned it a few times.

"How many people are at the camp?" I pulled an arrow out of one's head, blood splatted on my favorite tank top.. but I ignored it.

"Quite a few, a few families." I wondered if there was anyone there that I knew.

The last arrow was pulled out of the zombie a few minutes later, the ground was littered with the rotting corpses.

I walked into the shack and grabbed my stuff, adjusting my hat and taking a quick look around the place. I grabbed the dirty sheet and stuffed it into my bag, just in case I needed it.

I slung my bag over my left shoulder. In a very strange way, I would miss this shack. I stepped out of the little building and took one look back at it before leaving.

Man, I get attached to easy..

Hey guys, hope you liked Chapter 4, I had all day to write it because we had a snow day here in Northern Ontario (in the middle of May)

Hope it came out okay, i'm not super used to writing just yet so excuse the really bad formatting and spelling mistakes.

Thanks for reading guys.. it makes me really happy to know that someone is actually reading something I wrote. :)

Follow/favorite and all that stuff.. and don't forget to review!

JAy MANGO


	5. New place, new problems

**BEFORE YOU READ.**

**I DO NOT OWN ANY CHARACTERS IN THE WALKING DEAD. I OWN ONLY MY O/Cs**

Hi guys, before you read I need you guys to knows these;

1. I DO NOT OWN ANY WALKING DEAD CHARACTERS

2. I am a new writer, I WILL MAKE MISTAKES

3. I love you guys for reading this!

4. Reviews are VERY REQUESTED I would love to know how I'm doing.

5. I would love truthful reviews, but please don't be to harsh on me :c

6. I can't promise quick updates, I work and have school and a social life to attend to as well.

7. THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR READING THIS STORY!

**IN BLOOM**

Chapter.5

New place, new problems

The hot Georgian sun beat down on the silent landscape, it's bright rays were something you wouldn't expect after yesterday's huge rain storm.

The old mud and the once soaked grass quickly dried up as the sun beamed down, making the walking experience to this 'camp' a little less tiring .giving me the chance to slip silently into my own mind.

It began to roam, everything about anything went through my mind, but it was the harsh snap of not knowing if my friends and family were okay was absolutely heartbreaking to me.

_I wonder if Dad and Maurice made it ok.._

_June.. Is she alright?_

_Lillianne must be fine..Lucas knows how to take care of her.._

_This zombie thing..it cant just be in the States..?_

_Billy.._

The sudden painful picture of Billy ran through my mind..the image of him as one of those.. _things.._stung me to the core. I didn't know if I loved Billy anymore.. after what he did.. but every thought or memory of him broke me up inside each time, like glass was being cut into my heart.

I felt slight tears building in my eyes, I forced myself to snap out of the trance and pushed myself into reality. I figured if I started a bit of a conversation with Daryl it might take my mind off.. things.

"So how'd you figure out where I was staying?" I glanced over at the tall, muscular man. There was something about him that made me feel safe, he had a sort of protective aura over him.. maybe it was because he saved me from starvation and all. It was odd, I was sort of 'growing' on him.

"Yur tracks, days ago I noticed a tiny trail and followed it and found some old shack. I didn't think much of it."

I didn't even _think _of hiding my tracks, I didn't think anyone was _alive _around these woods to even think of hiding them.

"So when I chased ya through the woods and ya passed out, I followed that trail just because I knew it was a place to ditch ya."

"You were gonna leave me there alone?" My face scrunched up and I scowled. I wasn't offended really..but I cant say I would of done the same thing. He nodded.

"Why didn't you?" he shrugged his shoulders slightly.

"Ya looked and acted like ya got bit, I wanted to make sure that when ya turned that ya would be taken out and not made into a problem."

"Ah.. I see."

_he stayed so he could kill me. _The thought made me chuckle slightly to myself, a sort of dark humor.

We continued to go down the trails leading the way to the camp, weapons ready to dispose of anything that came along our way. I kept my sharp eye out for anything moving anywhere, I was thankful that my hat effectively blocked out the sun, making spotting things was a lot easier.

After walking an hour or so we reached the field were I had originally spied on Daryl and Merle, it appear in the near distance. You could see the upright stick in the middle of the clearing.

"Did you do that?" He pointed to the stick in the distance. We kept walking at a steady pace towards the stick.

"Mhmm.. I needed to get you and your friend's attention somehow." A proud smirked made it's way unto my lips. "It worked.. sorta?"

He snorted. "Didn't know what to think of the damn thing." I laughed a bit. And in the corner of my eyes I saw almost smile, as if he was trying to hide it.

"Yur lucky I saved you from that walker that attacked you over there in the first place."

"Hows that lucky,? damn thing gave me a fat lip." I chewed on the swollen lip, it had healed but was still sorta lumpy. "I could of taken care of it _myself _anyways." I crossed my arms, and leaned my foot onto the stick until it was bent slightly.

"With just yur damn knife?" He held onto his crossbow and shot me a sorta cocky look. "You'd be dead in no time if ya ran into a swarm of them walkers."

"Me and my knife can handle it, I can kill those things like _nothing_." I took out my large white knife, placing my left hand on my hip. It was something I did without thinking, a sort of habit I did when I was annoyed.

"Okay _Pocahontas_, next walker we see you take it out like _nothing_." He mocked me.

I guess he noticed I was native american, usually people don't take much notice in it and think i'm just a tanned white person. The tone of his cocky, rough voice irked me to accept the challenge. And of course, my pride took hold of me.

I snorted loudly, openly showing him I was a pissed. "Okay you redneck, its on." I shot him a look and he shook his head slightly and continued walking on towards the treeline.

I hadn't been past this part of the forest yet, so from here on out Daryl took charge of leading the way.

The sudden sound of cracking trees and twigs not to far from us made both me and Daryl go still. We both drew out weapons and got down into crouched positions. Over towards the back of us stood a lone female walker, her entire left part of her jaw and skull had been peeled or broken off, revealing her grey useless brain and open gaping mouth.

"This ones yur's Pocahontas." Daryl whispered. I shot him an annoyed look as I slowly and gently put down my bag.

"But don't ya worry..me and my bow are here to save your dumb ass when you fuck up."

I wasn't sure if he was joking.. I ignored it and silently crouched my way towards the walker.

_I CAN do this, I've done it before, and I CAN do this._

I pumped myself up a bit, gaining some confidence. With my grandfathers knife in hand.. I felt like I could do anything.

As I got a bit closer the thing shot her head back, she had heard me move slightly and sniffed the air. I was only a few dangerous feet away from her..she was basically above me. A growing growl from the bag of bones told me that she had caught my scent, and a shuffling of her feet making their way towards me re-assured it.

I tightly held my knife with both hands on the handle, ready to use it. The shadow of a body was on me.. the zombie was standing behind me, no doubt about it.

I breathed in and placed my knife facing up and milometers from the front of my face. In seconds I forcefully pushed myself up, the sound of my blade going through the open part of her mouth grossed me out. She fell backwards, with my knife still in her mouth, but she was not dead yet.

I got to my feet and lunged forward on the zombie slut's body, not afraid to get her stink on me. I grabbed the handle and pushed it forwards like a handle of a machine, cutting her open from upper jaw to the middle of her already open skull.

I let out a sigh of relief quickly, pulled out my knife and walked towards the still crouched Daryl, with a little cocky swing in my step.

"Not bad for _Pocahontas ,_huh?" I was about to wink when an arrow went wizzling past my head and hit something behind me with a large **THUD**. My eyes shot open wide, for a second there I thought Daryl was trying to kill me.

"Pocahontas should _watch her back_." He gave me a dirty look and got up and walked past me, leaving me in a sort of shock.

I turned around and saw a large torn apart male walker laying motionlessly behind me. Daryl pulled his arrow from the goof's head, gave me a look and walked passed me again, still leaving me with nothing to really say.

"_Esti calisse de tabernak!" _I swore out loud to myself and followed Daryl again. I had only known this guy for a day or two, and he had already managed to save my dumb ass a million times. I felt like a fucking damsel in distress or some shit, esti.

We continued to walk for another hour or so, my hockey bag was starting to bug my shoulders and back..not to mention the damn sun that had me baking in the heat. I still wasn't used to this damn Southern sun. I was used to having long cold winters, and short but warm summers. Canadian problems in an American world I guess..eh?

Along the long way to camp , Daryl managed to catch a good amount of squirrel .not the most appetizing food in the world but in this day and age.. I didn't expect to be eating salmon no more.

"How much fucking longer is it till camp?" I stopped for a quick moment and put down my bag and rubbed my sore shoulders. They were aching from the sunburn,weight, and the old but sore bruises Billy gave me the night we got into the fight.

Daryl stopped for a moment and looked around. "Just over this hill." He pointed. I grabbed my shit again and swung it onto my _not as sore _right shoulder.

I wasn't to sure about this camp.. who was there? families I thought about it even more._ As long as there were people..live people..I think I will be happy._ I felt nervous but excited.

In the distance I spotted something moving, I tapped on Daryl's shoulder.

"Something up ahead, get down." I whispered into his ear . He nodded and crouched down, taking his crossbow from his back.

"Walkers?"

"Nah.. animal.. big, maybe a deer?" I glanced forward, the slight movement in the bushes got my heart racing. From the bushes emerged a large doe. It lookws pristine and seemed to be in pretty good shape judging by it's size. I could taste the deer right now..and it tasted like heaven.

"Can you see it?" I whispered, he took aim with his bow.

"I cant concentrate over yur yappin." I gave him the finger quickly, but I don't think he noticed.

In a blink of an eye, one of Daryl's arrows flew from the bow and hit the deer in it's rear..another one quickly followed at hit it almost in the same spot. Before the thing could even think of running off, he shot _another _one that hit it in the guts. The deer took off, a thick trail of leaking blood followed.

"Gonna leave it to bleed?" I got up from my crouched position and stretched my arms out a bit and grabbed my bag.

"Yeah, it took off towards the camp, so it'l probably be round there." He slung his crossbow on his back again and we marched on, following the thick trail of blood left from it's wounds.

It reminded me of the times me and my cousins would hunt and kill our own meals years ago, we got a deer once but in the middle of the night a bear got it from the tree we had it hanging from.. so naturally we lived off rabbits from there on out. Easier and quicker to clean.

We walked another good ten minutes, my body felt like giving out as hunger struck it again..but nothing could compare to how thirsty I was.

The sudden and high pitched screams of children rang from the far distance. Children from the camp maybe? I took a look at Daryl, who didn't have much of an expression on his face.

"You hear that?!" I grabbed onto his arm for his to face me, he pulled away rudely.

"Probably some brat at the camp, found a snake or sum shit." He looked so unconcerned it made me angry.

"I'm going up ahead, maybe their in trouble." I had always had a very big soft spot for kids.. I couldn't even tell you how many baby cousins I helped raise in my lifetime.

"And git yourself killed by any walkers round here?" he looked me dead in the eyes for a few moments. His dark blue eyes focused into my light blue ones, a staring match between us. I couldn't tell if he was genuinely caring about me or just trying to point out my stupidity.

I broke the stare and looked into the distance, crossing my arms. "Rather me then some little kids!" my back ached and I hunched down a bit, but I was ready to help the kids no matter what.

"Look, there's parents at the camp, let em take care of their own." I exhaled slowly. I wanted to go help, but it was in the distance and my body was aching everywhere.

"Just this once."' I fixed my hunting ball-cap. Daryl turned around and continued to follow the deer's blood. I noticed something odd.. foot prints, but messy and mixed with the deer's blood.

I silently took out my knife, Daryl noticed this from the corner of his eyes and looked at me suspiciously.

"Relax asshole im not about to stab you." I joked, but he didn't even crack a smile.

"Notice the footprints?" He asked, I nodded in response.

We kept walking silently towards the deer. Muffled voices came from a few yards away, guessing we were close to the camp..

We walked towards the noises, the forest became less and less dense. Daryl walked in front of me by a few feet, until he was out of my sights.

"Son of a bitch!" he said loudly, I raised an eyebrow.

"Whats going on?" I turned past a few rocks and found myself in the middle of a scene. There were men, all of different age groups gathered around what I presumed was the deer me and Daryl had been tracking. A headless zombie layed motionlessly next to the deer. I noticed a few other people, mostly kids and women were standing a bit off to the side.

"All gnawed on by this FILTHY SLEEZE BAG BASTARD." he kicked the dead zombie's body, I couldn't help but laugh a bit, Daryl turned back at me and gave me a pissed off look, I just shrugged my shoulders and silently laughed a little more.

I knew I shouldn't be laughing, that was soposed to be good eating but watching Daryl freak out was priceless at the moment.

"Calm down son.. that's not helping." an elderly man with an old fishing hat spoke up gingerly.

"What do you know about it old man?!" I looked over to the other men, they looked very intimidated by Daryl.

Daryl pulled the arrows from the deer.

"Cant we cut around this chewed up part round here?" He pointed to it's chewed up neck.

"Not gonna risk that." A tall dark haired man spoke up, he made a lot of sense.

"Damn shame."

"Gonna introduce us to your friend?" The old man smiled and spoke up, all eyes were suddenly on me.

"She ain't no _friend_." Daryl's commented. It sort of got to me, I glared at him for a second and replied to the man.

"Roseanna Leduc .. nice to meet you all" I smiled and looked around to them all. The men barely gave a smile, they were pretty shook up by this zombie attack I guess.

The severed head of the zombie seemed to have come back to 'life' and it gnawed it's ugly teeth. Somewhat interrupting my introduction.

"C'mon people what the hell." Daryl lowered his bow and gruesomely shot the damn thing in the eye. I chuckled for a second , in the sort of surprised way. Despite seeing what these... _things _were capable of doing, I wasn't extremely terrified of them.. maybe I was in some sort of zombie denial.

"Gotta get the brain, don't ya know nothing?" Daryl certainly was something else, something that no one else in the camp was obviously, you could tell just by looking at him. I was conflicted with the redneck.. I wasn't sure if I_ hated _him or _liked _him.

Daryl marched off, shouting out something. I followed the rest of the group awkwardly, trailing behind.

"What the hell were you doing hanging with that psychopath?" Someone spoke up beside me. I looked up to the man trailing beside me. He was a little bit taller than me, a young Asian man, maybe only a year or two younger than me.

"He found me in the woods, gave me food and I followed him back here." I smiled. "What's your name?"

"Glenn, welcome to the camp I guess." He smiled down at me, he seemed like the friendliest of the group so far.

Up ahead the other men walked, one caught Daryl's attention, almost instantly everyone went into an awkward silence. They were hiding something.. I could feel it.

"There was a problem.. In Atlanta." I listened intensely, Daryl looked around for a moment.. like he was sort of looking around for someone. Then I remembered the other man he was with the first time I saw him.. where was he? I listened even more closely now than ever.

"Is he dead?"

"Not sure.."

I felt bad for Daryl, they must be talking about his friend, or brother or something.. the older man in the woods.

"He either is or he ain't!" Daryl paced around, he was getting angry. I felt like I needed to calm him down, but he's not my problem.. But he did help me with mine.. I felt conflicted.

Out of the crowd one of the men stepped forward, he must of been in his late 30's.. was a good looking man.

"Look, there ain't no easy way of saying this.." He calmly spoke.

"Who the hell are you?" Daryl was pretty steamed at this point.

"Rick Grimes."

"_Rick Grimes_." Daryl repeated mockingly. "Got sumthin you wanna tell me?"

"Your brother was a danger to us all." The mystery was solved, the man.. Merle was in fact Daryl's brother like I had first thought.

"So I hand cuffed him on a roof and hooked him to a piece a medal.. hes still there."

"What could the man of done to deserve that?" I spoke up, everyone was surprised to hear something out of me. Daryl looked almost, sad. He quickly wipped the sweat out of his eyes and paced back angrily.

"Lemme process this.. So you handcuffed ma brother to a roof.. and you left him there!" He screamed now. I knew what was coming next, I think everyone knew but didn't know how to react.

"Yeah.."

He threw his squirrel necklace thing forcefully and rushed forward to attack Rick, but was taken out by the black haired man.

I dropped my shit and rushed forward to Daryl, who had been pushed to the hard dusty ground.

"Stay put." I looked him straight in the eyes and warned him. I pushed down forcefully on his chest with my hand, while reaching for my knife with my other... just in case I needed it. He struggled violently and gave me the crazy eyes, he reached for his knife and slammed me forcefully down to the ground by my shoulder.

"Esti Calisse.." I swore silently to myself, and watched on from the dirt as he was taken care of by Rick and the other guy.

"Best lemme go!" He shouted with his rough voice.

I got to my feet, Glenn walked towards me and handed me my bag.

"You alright?" He asked with genuine concern.

"Mhmm." I dusted off my clothes and picked tiny rocks out from my right shoulder, the fall left me with a slight road burn and scratch, and made my tattoo look like shit.

"Cant say I didn't expect him to react that way... I probably would have done the same thing." I reached down and picked up my knife and dusted that off.

I looked back to the scene, Rick was now talking to the slightly calmed down Daryl.

"S'not Rick's fault.. I had the key." A voice rang up from behind me, a black man walked forward . "I dropped it."

"Pick it up?!"

"I dropped it down a drain." Daryl lowered his head. I ting of remorse came forward in me, I wanted to help out _somehow_.

"This make me feel better it don't." Daryl got up to his feet. The awkwardness still hung in the air, no one said a word that dident have to.

"Maybe this will.. I chained the door so the geeks couldn't get at him.. with a padlock."

"Its gotta count to sumthin." Rick added in.

I felt bad for Daryl now, he wiped slight tears from his eyes.

"THE HELL WILL ALL Y'ALL! ..just tell me where he is.. so I can go getum!"

A soft womanly voice chimed in.

"He'l show you." She looked Rick straight in the eyes. "Ain't that right?"

A few more seconds of awkward silence followed...

if they were going back than I was going to.. I want to repay Daryl for saving me..I need to help...I need to.

Hey everyone! sorry for the supper late update :( I've been pretty busy lately with just about everything! I meant to get at least two chapters done this past weekend but May run parties and camping got in the way.. hahah

Anywho... Latest installment for IN BLOOM, hope you enjoy. I'm starting to work on the chapter.6 right now, hoping to have that all written soon.

- JAy MANGO


	6. Agreement

**BEFORE YOU READ.**

**I DO NOT OWN ANY CHARACTERS IN THE WALKING DEAD. I OWN ONLY MY O/Cs**

Hi guys, before you read I need you guys to knows these;

1. I DO NOT OWN ANY WALKING DEAD CHARACTERS

2. I am a new writer, I WILL MAKE MISTAKES

3. I love you guys for reading this!

4. Reviews are VERY REQUESTED I would love to know how I'm doing.

5. I would love truthful reviews, but please don't be to harsh on me :c

6. I can't promise quick updates, I work and have school and a social life to attend to as well.

7. THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR READING THIS STORY!

**IN BLOOM**

Chapter.6

Agreement

A pretty exciting day began to unfold for me, first I was almost killed by a fucking zombie and now I'm in the middle of a war zone.. and currently I was about to be risking my life for a man I hardly know's brother...

I've always been one for dumb shit and excitement.. the moment I was old enough to wear a bra I was partying. Couldn't tell you how many times I had snuck out at night.. I cant remember anything past jumping out the window because of how fucked up I would get. Do I regret it? Sometimes..maybe if I would of just stayed home all those nights.. _that _night.. things wouldn't of happened the way they did.. But without the mistakes I had made all those years ago as a teenager, I wouldn't be the same women I am now.. I wouldn't be the same Roseanna.

"I want to go to." Rick looked back at me like I was a crazy person. After all, I was a complete stranger to this group..and volunteering my life for someone I didn't even know _does _sound like something only a crazy person would do.

"You don't have to, it's not your responsibility."

"Nah, I owe Daryl this one.. trust me I'l be fine." Rick didn't bother arguing with me, he just went walking towards what I presume was his tent. The crowd scattered and went back to what they were doing before. I looked around the camp, it was nice and little .. dusty, but the amount of people made it feel a little bit homey.

I grabbed my bag and started my way towards where Daryl had stormed off to.. I felt watchful eyes on me the entire time.. I turned by head back for a moment and saw a couple of eyes on me. I'm new, I cant blame them I guess.

I found Daryl leaning up against some old truck, cleaning his arrows from the dried blood that caked them.

"What do ya want?" he rudely asked without looking up from the arrows, I guessed he knew it was me just by my steps.

"I'm going to Atlanta with you guys, I want to help." Daryl sighed and finished what he was doing and slammed his arrows onto the hood of the car. His expression changed from somber to angry really quick.

"I don't need ya help! _..not your problem women_." He was angry at me.. Maybe he blamed me for his brother's situation? If he was there in Atlanta with Merle instead of in the woods with me when the situation went down it would've been different. He grumbled the last part under his breath.

"I owe you, and you cant stop me." His intense glare did little to bring me down, it would take more than a look to stop me. "Besides you and Rick might need the extra help."

He grabbed at his arrows and tried to walk past me. I grabbed gently onto his forearm and held onto him, he flinched slightly.. but surprisingly he didn't even try to pull away from my grip.

"Are you alright?" I gently asked. He turned his body around a bit so he could see me. Obviously he was in pain, I would feel the same way if someone had left my brother on top of a roof alone to. His facial expression softened, he exhaled and looked me in the eyes for a second then looked away.

Daryl's blue eyes hid nothing from me. I had very good experience with people trying to hide their emotions from me..my parents were always hiding something.

He just looked down silently at my tiny hand, not taking his eyes off it for a moment.

"We'll get him." He looked back up to me, silently with no shown emotion. I gave him a reassuring smile and let go of his arm, he walked away and I stood next to the old truck with a sort of goofy looking smile plastered on my face..

_What was wrong with me?_ Smiling like this after everything that was going on.. after Billy? My expression changed to happy to frustrated, I leaned against the truck and stared off into the distant tree line. Damn emotions.

For a moment, I thought of my current situation. I wasn't in the boonies anymore, I was at a camp.. with people who are ALIVE.. I still cant believe everything that had happened. I tried keeping my mind from Billy, but every silent moment I had to myself he was in. I glanced down to my hand, I was still wearing my engagement ring..

I pulled myself together and dropped my bag down beside the truck for now. When I would get back I would find myself an area to set up for myself. My stomach rumbled a bit, I hadn't eaten recently but I was getting more and more used to it. Slowly, I made my way back towards where everyone else was.

"So that's your plan, You Daryl and some girl we just met?" I overheard the woman from before. She made awkward eye contact with me once she realized I had heard it all. I guess she hadn't seen me coming this way. I just stared back at her, she stopped once I had made it purposely more awkward for her.

I stood behind a blonde women, she looked serious but gave me a bit of a smile.

Rick had apparently gotten Glenn to come along to, he looked uncomfortable but agreed. I liked Glenn, he seemed like a genuinely nice guy. He would be someone to talk to in the camp.

"That's just great now your gonna risk three men an a women?." The dark haired man seemed to not be happy about this whole Merle thing. It wasn't his problem, I didn't know why he was getting so worked up for.

"Four." The black man from before spoke up to. I noticed Daryl's not so happy expressions.

I coughed a bit, I realized then how thirsty I was. Everyone I felt comfortable talking to at the camp were busy arguing for me to ask where the water was. I turned to the Blonde women beside me, she was listening to the conversation but not in it.

"Excuse me." I tapped her shoulder lightly, she turned around.

"Do you guys have any water, I haven't had any in a while and im getting pretty dry." I smiled as politely and nicely as I could. She nodded and smiled.

"Me and my sister have some, come over here for a second." She began to walk off and I followed. Daryl and the man had gotten into a bit of an argument, so this would pass a bit of time.

We walked towards a large tent, a young girl; maybe a year or two younger than me walked out to greet me. I assumed was the blonde's sister.

"Hello!" She smiled and reached out her hand to me. I smiled sweetly and shook it.

"I'm Amy, and this is my sister Andrea, welcome to the camp.." She paused for a moment to let me speak.

"Roseanna, call me Rose." I couldn't stop smiling, people who were alive and breathing surrounded me, I loved it.

Andrea had her arms on her sister's shoulders. They smiled and looked happy. Maybe this camp was a new home to me..

"Nice to meet you all." I paused. "Do you guys have anything to drink? I hate to ask but im dry as sand here." I laughed a bit nervously to myself as I awkwardly asked.

"Just a sec." Andrea zipped open the tent and made her way in.

"So where are you from?" Amy asked me, I guess she noticed I didn't have a southern accent like most people at the camp. Come to think of it, Andrea, Glenn and Amy were the only ones i'd talked to so far who hadn't had an accent.

"Vancouver, Canada." She looked amazed.

"Canada? Your from Canada?" Andrea walked out of the tent smiling to herself, Amy's amazement in me made her grin.

"Mhhm." I was so used to people being amazed by _'Canadianess'_

Andrea zipped up the tent and tossed me the unopened water bottle. I twisted the cap off the clear bottle and instantly chugged it down.

"Do you guys have Polar bears?" I stopped drinking and twisted the cap back on to the now half empty bottle.

"Not where i'm from, but more in the Northern areas." Amy looked amazed

We small talked for a little bit, I got to know them better and I spoke a little bit about myself. After a few laughs someone started shouting for me from not to far away.

"Well looks like i'm heading to Atlanta." I smiled slightly. Andrea and Amy looked a little disappointed.

"Come back alive." Amy spoke up. "Your the only other girl in this place close to my age." She smiled weakly.

"Don't worry about me, I survived in the boonies for days alone.. I can survive a city." I half lied to myself, I was nervous about this trip but didn't let it show.

I started my way back to the 'meeting area'. I took a sip from my water, trying to take little sips so I wouldn't run out faster.

A large moving van was wide open, inside it you could see Daryl holding his bow and marching back and forth. I got closer, checked my knife and stopped just before getting inside.

"were taking this?" I leaned my body on the truck and looked up to Daryl. He was looking out towards Rick talking to the old man and mechanic, to distracted to look down at me.

"Ya, get in." He didn't bother looking down or anything. I put my knife back into it's place and climbed up into the open space of the truck.

I sat cross legged in one of the corners and stretched slightly. I noticed Glenn was the driver and scooted my way forward so I could talk to him. I was to lazy to actually stand up to talk so I just sat on the floor

"How'd you get yourself in this mess?" I asked him, he looked surprised that I was talking.

"Rick asked me." He simply answered. "Hows your shoulder?" He glanced down at my right arm from his seat.

Daryl glanced back, he listened silently to our conversation.

"Could be worse." I exhaled. My shoulder was a little torn from the forceful push Daryl had gave me, it was sun burnt then.. now scabby and burnt.. "Made my tattoo's look like shit though." I leaned back against the wall of the truck.

I examined my shoulder tattoo for a moment, the large white lilies expanded from my collar bone to just above my elbow. I had gotten it with my cousin Lillyanne, she got red roses on her left arm in the same way I got my lily's. It was a well done tattoo, the blue whirling pattern really made the white lily's pop. Thinking of Lillyanne was painful, I pushed her from my mind for my own sanity.

Glenn laughed a bit and our conversation ended like that, we really didn't have to much else to say.

Daryl went marching towards us and honked the horn with his foot.

"CMON LETS GO." He shouted to Rick. I slid back into the left corner and prepared myself for the drive. I undid my long hair and watched as the black man walked in.

He looked at me for a second, we hadn't met formally yet.

"Your coming with us?" He asked and I nodded, he looked a bit worried.

"Do you have a gun ?"

"Don't need one." I looked up at him from under my hat. He just nodded his head but obviously didn't agree with me.

"Names Rose, yours?"

"Theodore, call me T-dogg"

I chuckled to myself, it was a silly nickname but it suited him. Rick and 'Shane' talked to each other at the end of the truck about guns or something, I wasn't paying attention.

I passed some time by fixing my hair, I put it into a messy high pony tail and fitted my hat around it. This way I wouldn't have to worry to much about stray hair getting in my way if i'm killing freaks.

The passenger's side of the truck swung open and Rick climbed up into the seat, he fiddled with a gun.

T-dog sat across from my corner, he fiddled with his fingers and layed his head back and closed his eyes like he was going to take a nap.

I rubbed my sore shoulder, I didn't notice Daryl was watching me from the corner of his eyes. He slammed the back door shut and the sound of the van starting and the bumps of the dirt road brought in the realization of what I was about to do.

I was about to go risk my life, for a man I don't know..for a man I hardly know. I looked down at the back of the truck to see what Daryl was doing. He sat motionlessly and stared at the blank spot across from him, his crossbow layed beside him.

Somehow I didn't mind doing this for him, he saved me.. I owe him this.

Slowly my mind stopped buzzing, I closed my eyes, and quickly I fell asleep.

The extra bumpy surface and the voices of Daryl and T-dogg woke me up slowly, I was having a good sleep for once and it was interrupted.

"_Esti_.." I swore to myself as I got up. T-dogg gave me a confused look, he didn't know what I had just said but didn't ask about it either.

I stretched for a second, the light of the opening door woke me up a little bit more.

Daryl and T-dogg jumped out of the back, I quickly woke up and jumped out with my knife drawn just in case I needed it for any surprise walkers coming my way.

"Is this building deep in the city?" I quietly asked Glenn as we jogged towards wherever we were going.

"A little bit in, not to bad we'll be there soon." I nodded and followed slightly behind at a steady pace.

After a few minutes of jogging we made it to the outskirts of town, the skyscrapers and tall buildings began to get bigger and bigger.

I hadn't had to much time to really explore Atlanta before this, even though I had lived here for a couple of months already. Billy always told me i'd love Atlanta when we lived back in Quebec, but he never really found the time to show me a lot of it after we moved.

"Merle first or guns?" Rick asked the group. We had made it to the main train area. It was obvious that the group had been here before, the fences had been cut to make way for them.

"Merle first! We ain't even haven this conversation!

"We ARE."

I chose not to speak up, I was just going to go with whatever needed to be done.. whatever Daryl needed I would do, this was all about repaying him for saving me.

"Glenn, you know the geography, it's your call."

"Merle's closest, the guns we can get when were coming back, Merle first."

We continued on towards the city, no problems with any zombie's so far. I spotted a few up ahead, but behind these fences we were protected from what surrounds us. After a long while of walking we came across the area we were soposed to be at, we snuck in quietly.

"Something's up ahead, a few yards." I warned everyone. My sharp eyes could see the slow movement in the dark area up ahead. We silently walked a little further until the moving object was only a few meters from us. The zombie walked aimlessly through the clothing store.

Daryl was the one who took the girl out, silently with his crossbow. I guess he was the one in charge of the killings..everyone else had a loud gun, and I would have to sneak up on one to get a kill.

"Hes on the roof of this building?" I asked Rick, he nodded his head.

"He must of gotten one hell of a tan." I chuckled to myself, Daryl looked back at me for a moment for some reason, he didn't glare at me so he wasn't angry. Was he checking up on me? Or was he just so used to saving my ass that it was a routine for him?

Quickly we hustled up the stairs, it was tiring but we were getting closer and closer towards the roof. Once we finally made it to the door, we stopped, the large chains made it impossible for anything to get into or out of the door.

As soon as the chains were off, Daryl kicked the door open and ran into the roof top.

"MERLE! MERLE!"

The roof was small, so I expected to see the figure of the man right away, but instead I saw nothing..

"What the fuck?" I stopped dead in my tracks once I saw what had apparently happened, Daryl's angry shouts didn't help with the shock we were all in.

All that was left of the man that was once here was a pair of bloody handcuffs and a severed hand.

"_Damn."_

__Weeeeeeelllllll another chapter from IN BLOOM. A sort of boring chapter, in my opinion.

Any who, thanks for reading everyone ! :) the views for this story have skyrocketed and I couldn't be happier ! Thanks for the favorites and follows, I love them all :D

JAy MANGO


	7. Harsh Reality's

**BEFORE YOU READ.**

**I DO NOT OWN ANY CHARACTERS IN THE WALKING DEAD. I OWN ONLY MY O/Cs**

Hi guys, before you read I need you guys to knows these;

1. I DO NOT OWN ANY WALKING DEAD CHARACTERS

2. I am a new writer, I WILL MAKE MISTAKES

3. I love you guys for reading this!

4. Reviews are VERY REQUESTED I would love to know how I'm doing.

5. I would love truthful reviews, but please don't be to harsh on me :c

6. I can't promise quick updates, I work and have school and a social life to attend to as well.

7. THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR READING THIS STORY!

**IN BLOOM**

Chapter.7

Harsh Reality's

Moments, moments of awkward shocked silence.

"Daryl.." I spoke softly, he stood looking at the severed hand. If he were to freak out right now, go on a rampage, I don't know if I could stop him. Knowing his temper, he would probably kill me if I even tried to calm him down. The air was still with tension, we all waited for any sort of a reaction. Seconds went by like hours.

A sudden muffled shout came from Daryl, he spun around forcefully and drew his bow and pointed it at T-dogg. I could tell he wasn't going to shoot him..the look on his face made it obvious, but I wasn't about to take any risks.

I risked getting hurt, I ran up from behind Daryl and grabbed him gently but firmly by his left bicep. My other hand ready with my knife. My concern wasn't over Daryl.. I knew he wouldn't do anything, it was Rick with his gun pointed at Daryl's temple that had me worried.

"I wont hesitate, I don't care if every walker in the city hears it."

With my other hand, I quickly swung up and skillfully rested my knife directly at the side of Rick's neck. He was so focused on Daryl he hadn't had the time to block me from doing so. it was sharp enough to slice him open with the smallest of movements, and I controlled it perfectly. Everyone, including Daryl hadn't expected me to do something like this.

"You pull that trigger.." I looked Rick dead in the eyes. "And I wont hesitate to _rip you apart_." My voice dripped with venom and anger. I meant every word I said. I would slice him to ribbons with no remorse, no emotion.

Daryl had lowered his bow, but Rick kept the gun to his head, so I kept my knife to Rick's throat.

Rick made no eye contact with me, he clicked the gun's safety back on and lowered his gun. My expression didn't change, I kept my knife at the same position, I waited a few second to make sure he wasn't playing any games. I stood beside Daryl and eyed Rick down, making sure he knew _I meant it_.

I kept my grip on my knife, my only weapon and heart I had left in this new shithole of a world.

"You got a dew-rag?" T-dogg nodded and handed Daryl a rag, he went forward and picked up the hand.

"I guess the saw blade was to dull for the handcuff.. ain't that a bitch." I kept my serious look on my face, I was still boiling inside.

Nothing was going to do harm to Daryl while I still owed him, he didn't deserve all this shit against him. One thing I made clear to this group , _no one was going to lay a hand on him while I'm still breathing _

Daryl finished wrapping hi's brother's bloody hand and put it in Glenn's backpack. Judging from Glenn's expressions he wasn't to fond of that.

A few silent seconds passed again. No one knew what to say, the awkward tension still hung in the air.. but now it was even worst than before.

After a minute or two we began to move again. I followed silently behind Daryl, we followed the small splotches of blood left over from Merle's tracks. He had gone down another stairway.

I couldn't image having to saw my own hand off, the thought of it made me shiver.

Awkward eye contact with Rick didn't help the situation. His expression was softened, he didn't look bothered anymore but I still kept on the same serious face.. I wanted him to know that I was no one to fuck with, and I meant everything I said.

We came into a series of offices, we split up momentarily to cover all the rooms, just to see if he was held up into one of them.

"Il go with Daryl, you guys figure out yourselves." I spoke for the first time since the rooftop incident. I made sure to sound pissed off.

They nodded and crept off into the other series of rooms and left me and Daryl to ourselves.

It was silent between us to until Daryl spoke up.

"What were ya doing up on the roof?" He stopped and looked at me.

"Was defending you when nobody else was." I looked him plainly in the eyes, he stared back down into me. A moment went by, I wasn't sure if Daryl wanted to argue with me or thanks me. I waited.

"I could take care of maself." He broke eye contact and proceeded to rummaged through the room.

"I owe you my life Daryl..I can promise you that nobody's gonna do anything to you while i'm still kicking." He almost looked surprised, but left it at that.

".. I would think you'd do the same for me." I shrugged my shoulder's slightly and rummaged through some desks beside him. Daryl looked down at me for a few seconds. He was stunned really, that someone would do that for him. He was actually thankful, but wouldn't show it. He was to tough for that.

We continued to go in and out of the multiple offices. I quietly rummaged through some of the desks and found some necessary items.. meds,snacks and even a few bottles of water left in some mini fridges.

I caught Daryl looking out and checking on me a few times, it made me laugh to myself every time. The fact that he would just turn away like nothing made it funnier every time. It looks like we were looking out for each other after all.

Minutes later we met up with the rest of the group, I stopped Glenn for a second. He looked at me like I was going to kill him.

"Hey I found some stuff, mind if I put it in your bag?" I smiled slightly , trying to get him to trust me and not think I was going to slit his throat open or something.

"Ya, sure." He turned around to let me zip his bag open and empty my thing's in there. I was going to give one of the bottle's of water to Andrea and Amy, a repayment for letting me take one of their water bottles.

The rest of the group continued on to the hall, me and Glenn walked slightly behind. Glenn stopped me for a moment, the other's didn't seem to notice as they continued onto the next rooms.

"Were you really going to do that to Rick?" Glenn broke the silence, he looked concerned and confused. We continued to walk, but far behind the rest of the group.

"If he would of hurt Daryl, yea." I took a glance at his reaction, he looked more confused than ever.

"You would kill someone for _Daryl Dixon_?!" He looked shocked, but kept his words hushed so no one but us would hear him, specifically Daryl.

"I owe him my life." I paused. "This is how i'm repaying him." Glenn wanted to ask more questions, but decided to keep them to himself.

_Dixon_? That was the first time I had heard his last name. _Daryl Dixon.._

We caught up with the rest of the group in what looked like to be a kitchen. Heating candles were lit next to a tightened belt, it became obvious that Merle had cauterized his own hand.

My uncle Reggie once had to do that with his own arm when he was out in the bush for a month. Was really funny when he came back with a stump as an arm, used to tell us little kids that he was attacked by a bear, but in reality he was 'attacked' by his own bear trap.

Good o'l memories..

Rick handled some bloodied objects, the rest of the group looked disgusted.

"Told you he was tough, nobody could kill Merle but Merle."

I remembered seeing and hearing Merle back in the field for those few minutes. He was a large man, much bigger than Daryl. I remembered him looking like a drill sargent, a big muscular man. It almost didn't surprise me that he was capable of cauterizing his own flesh.

"Don't take that on faith, he's lost a lot of blood.."

"Oh ya, didn't stop him from bustin out a this death trap." We walked towards the broken window that Merle had apparently broken out of. Damn this guy was fucking tough.

As they spoke I took the chance to rummage through the kitchen to see if there were any still eatable food left. I found a couple cans of vegetables and some fruits, something that would be useful for the camp. I felt like the vulture of the group, but I was helping out the camp by doing this.

I unzipped Glenn's bag and pilled the cans against the other goods I found.

"Not getting to heavy is it?" I peeked around his bag.

"Nope, always good to have extra stuff." He smiled back at me and I turned back and zipped up the backpack

I hadn't noticed Daryl and the others had gotten into a verbal fight. I straightened up and took my knife out, just in case. T-dogg and Glenn noticed this and went still and quiet.

Rick pushed Daryl and I was about to get in it... but something told me I shouldn't. I kept to myself but still held tight to my knife.

"Hands off me! You can't stop me!"

Rick somehow talked Daryl out of rushing out and getting his brother alone, I put my knife away.

"Only if we get those guns first. I'm not strolling these streets of Atlanta with just my good intentions, k?"

I agreed with T-dogg, it wasn't a good idea to start roaming the streets unarmed, we would be no match against a swarm of those things..

"I have an idea." Glenn continued on, but nobody really found it to be a good one, including me

"Your not doing this alone."

"I think it's a bad idea and I don't even like you much."

We all sat down in a room near the kitchen. I took a seat next to T-dogg and leaned my back against some desk.

"Its a good idea.. k?" "Just hear me out"

I got up for a moment to look around the room for anything useful, like I always did. I also listened to what Glenn had to say at the same time. I rummaged through a wooden desk, the picture frame of a family stood firmly on the desk. Apparently it had belonged to a middle aged women with three children and a golden retriever dog. How original.

"If we go out there in a group were smoked."

"Speaking of smokes!" I Interrupted the group of the moment in delight, while rummaging through the women's desk I found myself some good ol smokes. I had been craving one for days, but with no lighter on me I couldn't do anything at the moment.

I stuffed the package into my pocket, this was one thing I _wasn't _about to share with anymore no matter what.

Glenn was mapping out his plan. I didn't pay much attention, it wasn't up to me to make these decisions.

They spoke of a layout I obviously didn't know of, but Glenn, Rick and T-dogg knew what they were talking about. They obviously knew their way around these buildings.

"Me and Daryl will go here.." Glenn pointed to a part of the map.

"Why me?" Daryl looked at me from the corner of his eyes, probably to see my reaction.

"Because your cross-bow is quieter than his gun."

I nodded in agreement, it was a pretty solid plan. I felt a little tinge of nervousness. Knowing I would be separated from Daryl made me un-easy for some reason, but I could handle myself easily, and he could handle himself better than anyone else could.

Glenn continued to explain the plan, I would be with Rick and T-dogg waiting in an alleyway two blocks away.

"Hey kid..what did ya do before all this?" Daryl looked at Glenn.

"Delivered pizza's.. why?" It was obvious that his pizza delivery skill's were coming in handy, he knew all the nooks and crannies in the damn city. Good skill to have for the zombie apocalypse.

We got to our feet and separated into our groups, I stood in the middle of next to Rick and T-dogg and watched as Daryl and Glenn made their way down the fire escape ladder and ran off.

_I swear if either of them get hurt.._

Me, Rick and T-dogg ran the other way, in the distance you could see a few dead freaks lingering around. With my knife drawn I snuck silently behind Rick, ready to stab anything that threatened us.

"Sorry for earlier." Rick suddenly brought up what had happened. He didn't keep his eyes off the distant walkers while he spoke to me. I silently looked on to the stumbling drooling dumb ass's ahead of us, they roamed aimlessly.

"Its fine." I replied in a monotone voice. "Just know I wasn't kidding." He looked back for a second to look me in the eyes and turned around again.

I didn't know it at the time, but Rick and the rest of the group (minus Daryl) had begun to suspect something was going on between me and Daryl. My protectiveness over the hillbilly was strange to them.. it was even strange to myself. I felt attached to him, despite not even knowing him for a week. But I hadn't felt anything _romantic _towards him.. I still think I loved Billy.

Rick suddenly ducked down, me and T-dogg did the same. The sound of muffled and dragging feet a few meters in front of us informed us of an incoming walker.

Rick looked panicked, I understood because all he had was a loud gun and all T-dogg had was a few tools. We didn't think of this ahead of times like we should of.

I got Rick'a attention, I pointed my knife out slightly to show him that I would take care of it. He look worried but after a few seconds of silent thinking, he nodded in approval.

I crouched down, knife in hand ready to attack. I waited for the muffled footsteps to get a little bit closer.. the shadow of the geek crept in front of us.

_Any second now.._

I sprang up to my feet, swinging my blade to the side of me, I hit the zombie hard in the neck. The rotten body fell beside us, I pulled my knife out of it's neck and quickly ended it's undead life with a wound to the forehead.

I twisted my knife to make sure the thing was competently dead, then forcefully pulled out my knife, unnaturally dark blood splattered my already blood covered favorite tank top.

Rick and T-dogg looked impressed and a little scared. They hadn't actually expected me to be so handy with my knife.. maybe this would be a realization to them of_ what could of been_.

I wiped my knife on my shirt to clean it of some of the dark blood when something startled me. The unfamiliar shouts of a boy rang through the city. Without even looking to Rick or T-dogg I bolted towards the sound on a full adrenaline rush.

_ESTI CALISSE DE TABERNAC! _I swore in French most of the time, was a habit I've had since I was little growing up with my Quebecer father.

I made it to the alley way that Daryl and Glenn were much faster than Rick or T-dogg, I saw a vehicle speed bye and Daryl closing the fence.

"WHAT THE FUCK!?" I screamed, Daryl was about to tackle a young boy but I got at him first.

I grabbed the kid by the shirt and pushed him into the concrete wall.

"What the fuck bitch?!" He swore with an obvious Mexican accent. He tried to push me back but my large knife to his throat stopped him from doing anything stupid.

Rick kept Daryl from beating the little fucker by holding him back, T-dogg watched both of the situations as they went down.

"You make one fucking move and your throat will be gushing." My pale, almost silver eyes went crazy, he looked scared out of his mind. My tiny size didn't matter, as long as I held the big hunting knife I was in charge.

Daryl shouted to the punk, threatening him among other things.

"Guys! GUYS WERE CUT OFF!" T-dogg shouted.

I looked around, only a fence separated us from a hoard of hungry freaks, and now a few of the started to pile in from the other blocks. If we didn't make it out of here soon, we wouldn't live to see tomorrow. Also, where was Glenn?

I lowered my knife from the Mexican boy, T-dogg immediately took him by his shirt and dragged him on forward to escape.

"GET TO THE LADDER, GO!" Rick screamed. I took off behind T-dogg and looked back for a moment to see in Rick and Daryl were okay. In a panic I noticed Glenn was competently gone...was he in that car that sped away? I kept running as fast as I could until I made it to the ladder, avoiding whatever zombie was around.

Halfway to the building I heard something fall from me, but my brain told me to keep running. A minute later it clued into me...I couldn't feel my knife at my side. I began to panic.

"MOTHERFUCKER!" I swore so loud that if the zombie's weren't already chasing me now, the would soon be.

I bolted back to were I came from, I noticed a swarm of the dead coming my way, with Rick and Daryl running a few yard in front of them.

It took me seconds to reach out and grab my knife, but the dead only needed seconds to get at me. I saw a figure run by, Rick must of ran past because it didn't match Daryl's figure.

I looked up and saw the growing crowd of zombies only a three meters from me now, I grabbed my knife and just stood there.. like a deer in the headlights..

"_This is it.. I'm dead.. I'm-" _

Something forcefully grabbed and pulled me forward, snapping me from my state of mind. I looked up to see it was in fact, Daryl who was tugging me along, looking at me like I was insane.

"Hurry up we got no time!" He screamed at me, I heard the moans and groans of the rotting corpses behind us.

We ran side by side, i kept my knife in hand.. the zombie's were so close that you could smell the flesh rotting.

Daryl stopped just before the later, grabbed me by the arm again and pushed me into the yellow fire escape ladder.

I scrambled up the ladder, which was hard to do considering I was wearing heeled cowboy boots.. They were all I had at the moment.

Once I made it to the top of the building my body collapsed, I was far out of breath and mentally I was in a different place. I leaned my body against the wall and slowly slid down. The problem was my mind, I thought I was going to die.. I was completely sure that those were my last moments.

The quick footsteps coming up the ladder belonged to very winded and pissed off Daryl. He slammed the door shut, a slight moaning outside the door indicated that the things were at least smart enough to climb a ladder.

"WHAT THE FUCK WERE YOU THINKIN?" Daryl paced back and forth in front of me, his adrenaline was obviously still pumping threw his body. I look him in the eyes for a moment with a blank stare. He looked away immediately.

"Gettin yurself killed.. over a damn knife.." He slowed down with his rant.. maybe waiting for my smart reply? or maybe waiting for me to snap something angry back at him. Instead I gave him nothing but pure and rare silence. He kept going on for some reason. For someone who claimed me as 'not a friend' he sure acted like he cared..

I stared off into the distance, I could hear Daryl yelling and cursing in the background.. it all started to fade. My vision became glassy and hazy. Seconds later everything quickly began to darken. I think Daryl noticed me being so out of it at this point, he stopped his rant.

I blinked once.. blinked twice and then nothing.. nothing but darkness.

Hey guys, sorry for the long wait I've gotten busy over the past little while lately and this might happen with the next chapter as well.

So hope you guys like this, I will be working on chapter eight the second this one gets published :)

Thanks for reading!

- JAy MANGO


	8. URGENT (PLEASE READ)

Hey guys, I NEED to write to you guys urgent.

I'm SO SOSOSOSOOSOSSOOS sorry I haven't written lately, I fell soooo horrible about not updating lately and all, but I PROMISE That INBLOOM will be CONTINUED AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.

Life has gotten extremely hectic for me, my personal life and school life has gotten in the way greatly and I apologize on not updating.

I will continue INBLOOM, but updating will be slow

Thanks so much for sticking by! Thanks everyone

- JAy


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